China Launches 10th Patent Week

China launched its 10th Patent Week on Nov. 21, aimed at increasing the profile of IP in China through exhibitions, information sharing and events across the country, according to China IP News.

Local patent administrations held a range of events and patent professionals were able to submit their opinions and suggestions for the patent system in China via the State Intellectual Property Office’s dedicated Sina Weibo account. Information on patent pools and other patent related information was published to the China Enterprise Intellectual Property website during the week-long series of events.

The event was held in line with China’s IP development goals, including its Innovation-driven Development Strategy, its National IP Strategy, and “Several Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of an IP Powerhouse under the New Circumstances”, according to the media outlet.

The first Patent Week was held in 2007.

Japan First to Launch New Internet of Things-based Patent Classification

The Japan Patent Office (JPO) created a patent classification for Internet of Things-based technologies on Nov. 14, 2016, according to a statement by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The move is aimed at making it easier for patent professionals and inventors to search for related prior art in the field and allow for more predictability in IoT patent grants.

These kinds of classifications play an ever more important role in the patent process with the advent of the big data era. The information will be available to users through the JPO’s patent platform J-PlatPat from 2017 onwards.

The JPO hopes to work with the other members of the IP5, the European Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to introduce the classification worldwide.

Chiao-tung University Launches FinTech Center Internship Program with Yuanta Securities

Taiwan’s Yuanta Securities announced Nov. 4 that it will once again team up with the Department of Information Management and Finance at National Chiao Tong University (NCTU) in an industry-academia collaboration, through which the company will invest NT$12 million (US$370,000) over six years, according to Taipei's China Times. The company will also build an internship platform in cooperation with NCTU's newly founded FinTech Innovation Center, in the hope of cultivating FinTech professionals in Taiwan.

The chair of Yuanta Securities Ho Ming-heng stated that the company has dedicated itself to training up financial talent, particularly in the FinTech sector. Yuanta has already won several prizes for its performance in FinTech and has brought substantial resources to the collaborative scheme, including lecture series, a platform for smart financial transaction strategies, a platform for smart financial data analysis systems and a smart transaction programming learning platform.

The collaborative project has so far involved the development of blockchain in Yuanta Securities business dealings and app development.

Alipay, allPAY and Pay2Go Battle Over Chinese Trademarks

Chinese internet giant Alibaba's third-party payment platform Alipay, which goes by the Chinese name “zhifubao” (payment treasure) previously requested that the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office cancel all trademark registrations that contain two of the three characters of its name in Chinese. Many copycat platforms have used the characters "fubao" (pay treasure) as their company name and have gone on to trademark these names.

Alibaba's request was rejected by TIPO, but the company appealed the decision to the Petitions & Appeals Committee of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which came to a different conclusion, announcing on Aug. 3, 2016 that all registrations with the characters "fubao" were invalid, as they infringed Alipay's trademark. One such company “allPay”, which goes by the Chinese name, "OuFubao" applied for administrative remedy in September.

Another third-party payment platform Pay2go, which goes by the Chinese name “zhifubao”, (smart pay treasure) using a different character for the “zhi”, held a press conference alongside allPay to announce their intention to defend their trademarks.

Kuo Mu-xuan, who is representing allPay, stated that the term “fubao” was not created by Alibaba, citing earlier registrations containing the term from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The chair of allPay Lin Yi-hung, stated that it was unlikely that consumers would confuse the two services, given that registration is required before they can use the app.

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