Authored by He Jing (hejing@anjielaw.com) and Dong Xue from AnJie Law Firm

On May 22 2014, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced the suspension of the investigation against Inter Digital Communications (IDC), a US wireless technology developer, as the company had submitted detailed  measures to address the regulator’s concerns. What is interesting is the differences in the IDC measures between the press release of NDRC and that of IDC. NDRC states that:

1) IDC will not charge Chinese enter- prises discriminatory and excessive patent licensing fees.

2) IDC will not bundle standard-essential patents (SEPs) with non-SEPs in the patent licence.

3) IDC will not require a Chinese manufacturer to agree to a royalty-free, reciprocal cross-licence.

4) IDC will not force Chinese enterprises to accept unreasonable licence conditions through direct legal action.Continue Reading Excessive pricing and standard-essential patents

Authored by He Jing (hejing@anjielaw.com)

On October 22, 2013, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) held a press conference in Beijing to announce 8 leading intellectual property (IP) court decisions.  The cases are all made by local courts in different cities and involved the granting of preliminary injunctive orders, reduction of the burden of proof on IP owners and an increase in the amount of compensation in civil cases, and intensified criminal penalties.  Almost all the claimed progress in the announcements relates to what has been asked for by foreign business communities. 

While it is worthwhile to remind that China is not a case law country, it is encouraging to see the new progress made in IP enforcement, which could be used as good precedents for IPR owners to push for more courts to follow. Continue Reading Supreme People’s Court Attempting to Reinvigorate China IP Enforcement