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The Reproduction Administration Measures to Take Effect Since August

According to a 7/9/2009 post in www.gov.cn, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) of China has formulated the Measures for Reproduction Management, which is allegedly aimed at boosting management and pushing the healthy development of China's reproduction sector. The regulation, to come effective since 8/1/2009, is formulated based on the Regulations on Publication Management and Regulations on Administration of Audio-visual Products.

GAPP said the new regulation will replace the "Measures for the Management of the Reproduction of Audio-visual Products", which was published by GAPP on 2/1/1996. The authority also said if other provisions on publication management have discrepancies, the new one - Measures for Reproduction Management, shall prevail. The regulation carries six chapters and 43 articles, including General Provisions, The Institution of Reproduction Units, The Management of Reproduction Manufacturing Equipments, The Management of Reproduction Business Activity, Legal Responsibilities and Supplementary Provisions.

The new regulation nails down quite a few key concepts such as "Reproduction Business Activity", and specifies qualifications for establishing reproduction units, and identifies management requirements of reproduction manufacturing equipments. In addition, it calls for strengthening the supervision and administration of reproduction activities and enhancing relevant organs' responsibilities. It states that the licenses of the infringing parties will be revoked and their legal representatives and their executives are subject to be excluded from the business for ten years after the revocation of business licenses. www.gov.cn, 7/9/2009

USITO Notes: The case is another evidence of the ongoing government effort in building a more rational and workable IPR protection framework. The new regulation attempts to strengthen the control on reproduction by redefining what the legal reproduction activities are, since "as technology develops, the situation are more complicated and can hardly be defined by existing regulations", as the gov.cn commentary states. In sectors like computer software and recordable CDs, reproduction activities are quite pervasive, but a big portion can't be justified as legitimate or not.

The past year 2008 was the inaugural year for the implementation of China's national intellectual property strategy. During the year, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released a white paper on China's IPR protection issues, with a focus on overviewing the growth stages of Chinese IPR system and related isues in the past several decades. In late 2008, the Ministry of Publicity (Propaganda) offered a guiding opinion on the publicity of the 2008 Action Plan for IPR Protection in China, issuing the Publicity Plan on Campaign of a Cleansing Publication Market and IPR Protection. The authorities have also organized many activities included the nationwide destruction of pirated and illegal publications, as well as the campaign of "No counterfeit sold in thousands of shops in hundreds of cities". The series of promotional campaigns have partially helped improving public awareness of China's IPR system(Members please click here for a list of government IPR campaigns in 2008). With the new reproduction regulation in place, the IPR enforcement agencies would be more capable of identifying these "countereit copies".

U.S. and China Forge Clean Energy Ties

This week two senior USG officials, the Trade Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, came to China visiting their counterparts. In a series of meetings the officials from both sides discussed the opening of Chinese markets to U.S. green technology, and how China can better reduce its gas emissions. As Mr. Locke said, " "Secretary Chu and I measured the success of this trip by answering the simple question of whether America and China can increase their cooperation in the development... of clean energy and energy efficient technologies."

The discussions seemed fruitful. The two world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases agreed to announce the establishment of a joint clean energy research centre, supposed to study issues including energy efficiency, clean coal technology and low-polluting cars.

Locke and Chu have met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as well as a few other top officials on environment, trade and other issues. But it seems no further substantial results were yielded at the current stage. A Xinhua report says the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050, while China tends to think such cuts are not enough and that developed nations need to commit more. xinhuanet.cn, 7/16/2009

USITO Notes: Environment issue is on top of the agenda of Locke and Chu's visit to China, reflecting the top level attention on this subject. The topic is also one of the priorities in next week's new round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) held in DC. The importance of this issue has been resonated well with USITO's Sustainability Work Group, which strives to address issues with the Chinese counterparts on energy efficiency, wasted electronics handling, greenhouse gas emissions, among others. We are honored to have Ms. Jing Lin on board since August 1, 2009, who will specially take on the sustainability issues of USITO (detailed announcement to be sent out soon).

China Reassures Foreign Business

The investigation into the alleged theft of state secrets by mining giant Rio Tinto employees would not affect China's cooperation with multinational companies, according to Chinese government, since this was an independent judicial case that had seriously hurt China's economic security and interests. It also doesn't mean China wants to restrict foreign companies' business in China or restrain the cooperation between Chinese and foreign companies, and China remains the top destination among developing countries for global foreign direct investment for 17 years in a row. Detail

Member in the News: Huawei and Intel Cooperate on R&D Center

Huawei announced to work with Intel for King Abdulaziz City to provide the Wireless Technologies R&D Center with state-of-the-art solution, including base stations, access network gateway, authentication servers and other needed equipment and software, in preparation for launching operations at the center in the next few months. Intel signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei to this effect in a ceremony. Detail

Knowledge Center 3G Industry Overview and Analysis, June 2009
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