Major IP players and events for 2015 are announced

Editor's note: The Patent Protection Association of China, China Intellectual Property News and Intellectual Property Publishing House jointly announced at a news conference on Thursday their selections of the major events, key investigations and influential figures in the field of patents for 2015.

Selected from more than 100 recommendations from local authorities, the business community, agencies, trade associations and judicial departments, the selections reflect China's efforts in IP protection, Xiao Luqing, secretary-general of the patent association, said at the news conference.

Major events included:

•Release of the State Council's policy on accelerating China's course to becoming a strong IP country

The State Council, China's cabinet, released the policy in mid-December. It hopes that the policy will result in substantial progress in the IP field, create a better environment for innovation and startups and thus forge a competitive edge internationally with regard to IP. Experts noted that China has embarked on the path toward building an IP powerhouse.

•Inclusion of IP professionals into the national job classification

IP was added as a new profession to the national classification in late July, falling under the category of "business and financial professionals". The goal of building China into a strong IP country, the implementation of a national IP strategy and IP-based industries place enormous demand on a growing number of IP professionals.

•Nobel Prize winner drew attention to protection of proprietary medicines

Chinese pharmacist Tu Youyou was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in October for her contribution to the development of an anti-malaria therapy. However, a lack of awareness regarding patent operation and protection means that patents related to award-winning medicine are held by multinationals. Experts have called on young scientists to tap into the huge reservoir of traditional Chinese herbs in order to both contribute to global healthcare and increase protection awareness to make better use of IP in the future.

•Launch of IP financial cards

The Bank of China's Shanghai branch and Bank of Shanghai jointly released IP financial cards to 40 IP-rich companies in the municipality in April 2015. The cards are the first of their kind in China and allow card holders to access loans via their IP assets, such as patents and trademarks. Loans of up to 3 million yuan ($460,000) or 5 million yuan, may be accessed depending on how much IP collateral the card holder has. The release of the cards represents a new exploration by the financial industry of the technology and financial service sectors, industry insiders said.

Key investigations included:

•Small home appliance manufacturers Supor and Joyoung have settled their legal wrangle over patents.

The two companies, which are both leading names in the Chinese kitchenware manufacturing industry, had been involved in claims and counterclaims against each other since 2011 in patent cases in various regions including Zhejiang and Shandong provinces and Beijing. Under the mediation of the Zhejiang People's High Court, the two companies reached a package of agreements for settlement in July. The package included a cross-licensing agreement allowing each company to use the other's patents.

•The US Patent and Trademark Office grants preliminary verdict in favor of Chinese trade association

A rare earth association made up of seven Chinese companies won a favorable preliminary ruling by the USPTO in August, after it filed a request in 2013 asking the US agency to void Hitachi Metals' patents concerning neodymium magnet, the most widely used type of rare-earth magnet. The move was in retaliation against the Section 337 investigation - which is a probe by the US authorities into a possible violation of IP rights - filed by the Japan-headquartered company with the US International Trade Commission in 2012.

•The first Section 337 investigation in history of China's pesticide industry

At the request of US-headquartered company FMC Corp, the United States International Trade Commission conducted a Section 337 investigation into Nutrichem in Beijing and Jiangxi Heyi Chemicals over their exports to the US in 2014. The commission ruled in 2015 that the two Chinese companies had not infringed on FMC's patents, which were found to be invalid.

•Qualcomm faced heavy fines for abusive use of its market dominance

The National Development and Reform Commission found in a landmark antitrust investigation in 2015 that the US semiconductor giant took advantage of its market dominance in licensing core patents for wireless standards and baseband chips sales. Qualcomn was fined $975 million.

Influential figures are:

•Ma Xianmin, head of the Guangdong provincial IP office

•Chen Jinchuan, vice-president of Beijing IP Court

•Ma Huateng, CEO and chairman of the board of Tencent Holdings Ltd

•Lei Jun, CEO and chairman of the board of Xiaomi

•Ma Yide, head of the Zhongguancun Intellectual Property Strategy Research Institute

•Zhi Suping, head of the Jiangsu provincial IP office