Contributors to the 2020 China IP Focus have written about a versatile range of issues, providing useful information for anyone with commercial interests in the jurisdiction. Indeed there are many articles in this supplement which will help foreign entities navigate China's IP terrain, including pieces on how right holders can enforce their IP in China, how US and Chinese disclosure practices compare and how to select Chinese language marks (if the applicant owns a trademark in a foreign language and wants to register a Chinese equivalent).
The Red Canned Herbal Tea judgment is highlighted as an important judgment for the intersection between IP and unfair competition law and the risks involved in trademark licensing. The Honda decision is also covered in some depth in this focus. This reversed a previous SPC ruling in the Pretul case. The Honda case deemed affixation of a trademark on a product solely intended for export by an OEM, "use" of a trademark. Both the Red Canned Herbal Tea and Honda judgments were selected as key cases by the SPC.
The articles in this issue of the China IP Focus also deal with other relevant matters, such as the evidence rules in IP litigation and the different defences in a patent infringement claim. We hope, here at Managing IP, that this supplement will be a useful stepping stone to understanding China's IP laws.
Sanjana Kapila
Commercial projects editor
Managing IP