日本の小売企業である良品計画は、「無印良品」のブランドで様々な家庭用品や消費財を販売していますが、中国での商標権侵害訴訟で敗訴しました。 報道によれば、2019年12月11日、北京市高級人民法院は、良品計画に対して、中国企業への60万元（約1,000万円）の損害賠償を命じました。 日本で「無印良品」ブランドが誕生したのは1980年で、良品計画は1990年に無印良品の事業を開始しました （良品計画のウェブサイト）。 しかし、良品計画が中国市場に進出する前の2005年に、中国企業がシーツやベッドカバーなどの商品（商標法上の商品区分：第24類）に「無印良品」（中国語で）の商標を中国で登録していました。

Ultraman, it’s one of Japan’s superheros like America’s Superman. A copyright holder of Ultraman, Tsuburaya Productions has been in dispute with Chinese production companies which produced and released a film featuring Ultraman in 2017. These Chinese companies now released another film featuring Ultraman. In response to this, Tsuburaya Productions made a statement on January 17 2019 that “we will take all necessary legal steps to protect our legal rights.” (The featured photo is a scene in the film trailer). This case is actually not so simple like typical Chinese copycat cases. The disputes began with a Thai businessman (Chaiyo Productions), who had friendship with a former president of Tsuburaya Productions, claiming […]

I had many opportunities to talk with intellectual property service providers during my two weeks trip to Seattle. Some of these firms devise a way to improve price competitiveness. Generally, in our globalized world, jobs tend to move to cheaper-labor countries or regions. The IP industry seems to be no exception. As an example, there is an Indian firm that undertakes patent prosecution work for the US patent applications. This firm provides  (i) a patent application drafting service and (ii) a prosecution service package which covers from patent application filing to registration with reasonable fixed fee for their clients who seek to file patent applications to the US. This firm […]

During a business trip to Shenzhen, we had a chance to talk with a Chinese company Andun which provides an intellectual property protection platform against counterfeit products. Andun has been building a network of lawyers to investigate infringing products and stop infringement activities for its customers. An interesting point of the business model is that Andun does not charge for such activities to the customers. Settlement money and compensation for damage are its revenue source for Andun and its allied lawyers. The customers can not only remove infringing products from the marketplace at no cost, but also receive a part of the damages. Therefore, this business model is realized at […]

I will make a business trip to Shenzhen, China next week to attend an IP-related event called IPBC (Intellectual Property Business Congress) and also to have several meetings with Chinese firms to discuss potential businesses. As a matter of fact, every time I visit China, especially Beijing, I’m worried about air pollution while checking a website which shows air quality, since I have asthma. Further concern is internet access environment. In China, I cannot use many of tools I use every day, such as google, skype, facebook, twitter. It’s very inconvenient, or rather I feel it limits my ability. Nevertheless, we expand opportunities to visit China. Because we see increased […]