Guangzhou Funa Clothing Co., Ltd. -- Montagut’s general agent of underwear in China, and Shanghai Guangnuo Garment Co., Ltd. -- the manufacturer, appealed to the Shanghai High People’s Court on December 10, claiming that the first-instance sentence handed down by Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court was improper.

The initial verdict said the two defendants, which named a kind of man’s wool underwear with “AB”, had infringed the trademark right of the plaintiff Jiangsu AB Group Co., Ltd. and thus should compensate the due economic loss.

However, the two companies said the first-instance ruling overprotected the ordinary letter composition of A and B.

They claimed that the disputed underwear contains a mixture of two kinds of yarn that are habitually called as AB yarn, so the lawsuit filed by the plaintiff was of obvious vicious purpose.

According to Wang Junbao, Deputy Director of Standardization Institute of Textile Industry, no industry standards have been established to name compound materials in China.

The case may help to promote relevant government authorities to stipulate industrial criterion on traditional materials, said Wang.

New Zealand kiwifruit producer Zespri Group Ltd. claimed during the court hearing in Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court on November 20 that Xishu Fruit Trading Company, based in Nantong City of Jiangsu Province, has been using the trademark of “Znishio”, which is quite identical to the registered “Zespri”.

The plaintiff said it registered the trademark of “Zespri” and the sunbeam logo after it entered the Chinese market in 1998.

However, Zespri officials found the similar trademark on the fruits sold by Xishu Shanghai earlier this year.

Zespri insisted that the design and whole image of the trademark used by Xishu would easily cause confusion and mislead consumers and thus infringed its trademark right.

20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures have jointly sued Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai to No.2 Intermediate People’s Court, saying the two defendants had distributed several popular Hollywood movies to public without their permission, which infringed their copyright.

The studios are demanding an apology, cease of the movie piracy and 3.2 million yuan (over 432,000 U.S. dollars) in compensation.

The court hearing is set to be held on December 29.

They claimed that Jeboo.com provided its software to the Internet café, enabling users to download or view 13 Hollywood movies, including Night at the Museum, X-Men 2, and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Jeboo.com’s activity was abetting and assisting the Internet cafe’s copyright infringing activities.

Jeboo.com, China’s largest online movie theater, owns the copyright of approximate 30,000 movies. Established in 2004, it is the first broadband movie provider in China.

The figure, which equals to 14 cases daily, realized a 57-percent increase compared with that of the same period last year, sources from the China Customs said.

The campaign, launched on October 1 with the code name of Dragon Boat Action, is the largest of its kind conducted by China Customs in recent years in an effort to protect Intellectual Property. It is scheduled to come to an end on March 31 of next year.

On the first day of the campaign, Shenzhen Customs intercepted two infringement cases, confiscating 8,774 pairs of fake sports shoes, including the brands of ADIDAS, PUMA, BEEBOK, NIKE, ASICS, etc.

“We hope the action will not only cut down the number of exporting commodities that infringe others’ IP rights, but give a lesson to domestic importing and exporting companies, so as to improve their awareness of the importance of IP protection and create a better environment for the task in China,” said Meng Yang, director of Policy and Legal Affairs Department of China Customs.

Sun Village, short for Beijing Sun Village Research Center of Aid to Exceptional Children, was established in Banqiao Village of Beijing’s northeastern district of Shunyi in December 2000.

As a non-profit charitable organization, the village provides free caring, education and medical services to the kids of convicts by means of self-financing.

The village helps to ensure a sound life for the children, whose parents are serving sentences. At present, the oldest villager here is 18 years old and the youngest is just a new-born baby.

Unitalen hopes the donation could help the children to “have a happy childhood and a shining future”. Unitalen said it just performed its social responsibility and expressed its best wishes and concerns to the kids.

Informed by Unitalen, officers of Changsha Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) raided a warehouse and confiscated 309 fake Tora filters on November 12. A large number of fake productions of Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and other foreign famous trademarks were also found in the warehouse.

The AIC officers then inspected the GaoQiao Friendship Auto Parts Fair on the opposite side of the street, finding three peddlers who were selling fake Tora accessories. The three sellers have signed guarantees not to infringe Tora’s trademark rights.

Running more than 1,000 outlets in China, Tora enjoys a high reputation at home and aboard due to its advanced management and reliable after-sale services. But Tora’s rising fame also made itself a target of infringers illegally making and selling fake Tora auto parts.

On behalf of Tora, Unitalen conducted the market investigation in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, and launched the campaign against false and fraudulent Tora auto parts along with AIC staff.