- Beijing

Uniqlo trademark dispute

Fast Retailing China, the Chinese branch of the owner of clothing brand Uniqlo, was accused of using two Guangzhou companies' registered trademark UL on its down coats last year without authorization. The two plaintiffs asked the company to stop production and sale of the clothes and demanded a combined 150,000 yuan ($24,000) in compensation. Haidian district court has accepted the case.

Beijing Youth Daily

- Hebei

IP crackdown planned

The government of Tangshan city will start 13 campaigns against intellectual property infringement this year, according to a news conference last week. Targeted products include clothes, gasoline, seeds, pesticide, medical devices, books and computer software. Under the plans enforcement officials will take action in markets and shopping centers in both urban and rural areas. There will also be campaigns to regulate TV shopping programs and karaoke stores.

Huanbohainews.com.cn

- Sichuan

Expo leaves capital for first time

The fifth China International Copyright Expo is due to start in the provincial capital Chengdu in September. It will be the first time the event will be held outside Beijing. The local government said the move showed their copyright protection efforts were being recognized by the national copyright administration. This year's event will include exhibitions, forums, trade and an awards ceremony.

Chengdu Daily

- Anhui

Academy success

The provincial academy of agricultural sciences filed 68 invention patent applications last year and 29 of them were granted, which ranked the academy top of all provincial research institutions. Some of the granted patents were commercialized and generated a combined profit of about 1 billion yuan. They included a crop spraying technology, a low-carbon ecological turtle feeding system and a technology to quickly identify genuine hybrid rice seeds.

Anhui Daily

- Jiangxi

Campaign protects students

The industry and commerce authority of Suichuan county launched a campaign to check product quality and trademarks of stationery, including pens, pencils, compasses and erasers. The campaign aimed to ensure that students taking the national college entrance examination had proper tools. Unqualified products are removed from store shelves immediately.

jxscnews.com

- Shanghai

Invention strikes gold

A research team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University developed an equipment that can reclaim noble metals from electronic waste. The invention can extract 400 grams of gold, 2.3 kg of silver and 172 grams of copper from a ton of used cellphones, or 1 kg of silver and 150 grams of copper from a ton of computers. Other metals such as iron can also be extracted and nonmetal parts can be reclaimed and made into boards.

Laodong Daily

- Guangdong

New-energy patent drive

Companies and organizations in the province filed 7,669 patent applications related to new-energy cars between 2009 and 2013. Guangdong accounted for 14.5 percent of the nation's total and was ranked top in the country, according to a report by the provincial IP authority and South China University of Technology. More than half of the applications focused on lithium battery technologies. BYD Co Ltd in Shenzhen was the top patent filer in the province with 626 applications.

Sipo.gov.cn

(China Daily 06/11/2014 page17)