Beijing Municipal High People's Court recently released top ten IP cases of 2011 in Beijing, in which 50% are related to online IP infringement.
The No.1 case is an unfair competition case related to 3Q, in which the court ordered Qihoo, the maker of popular Chinese anti-virus software 360, to apologize to the Internet service provider Tencent and pay 400,000 Renminbi yuan in compensation.
In the case where Kaixin001.com sued Oak Pacific for infringement of Kaixin001’s trademark, the court ruled that the defendant Oak Pacific, owner of a social networking site Kaixin.com illegally used the name similar to Kaixin001.com that would easily mislead the consumers. The defendant was ordered to pay 400,000 Renminbi yuan in compensation.
In a case related to intangible cultural heritage protection in China, although the court dismissed the action brought by the plaintiff against a Chinese famous director Zhang Yimou, the case did provide some guidance with regard to the litigating parties, right of signature, identifying the liability for infringement.
