The mechanical and electrical engineering industries produce the components and products which carry us to and from work, power our phones, play our music, and facilitate every aspect of the modern lifestyle. In the Philippines, these industries form the lion’s share of bilateral trade with the EU.
Today we will examine some critical IP issues for SMEs operating in these industries in the Philippines as well as how to overcome those issues.
It’s Friday and the first week of our industry spotlight month is drawing to a close.
As a final treat for EU Food and Beverage SMEs we asked Mr Reinout Van Malenstein, IP lawyer and expert in Chinese intellectual property law for some advice for F&B companies looking to make the leap into the lucrative Chinese market:
Continue reading “Food and Beverage Podcast with our expert Reinout Van Malenstein” »
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.4MB)
The internet has become a popular and easy channel for product distribution around the world. It has created a marketplace of more than half a billion users in China, more than a third of the world’s total online population, and is still expanding. Apart from being a forum for legitimate vendors and original products, the internet is also used by businesses as a platform for the distribution of counterfeit goods which infringe intellectual property rights (IPR).
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is back in the news this week, but with less fanfare than its biggest-IPO-in-history success story back in September. It has been criticised in a report from the State Administration of Industry & Commerce (SAIC) over hosting the sale of counterfeits, among other illegal trading issues. Data from the SAIC suggests 63% of listed brand goods on the site are not genuine – no insignificant number to be sure. This has kicked-off a battle between the SAIC and Alibaba, with counter-statements from the company and a number of accounts of alleged infringements emerging from both sides.
Continue reading “Alibaba – Who is responsible for keeping out the counterfeits?” »
China’s taste for Western wine has taken-off dramatically in the last decade, with EU wine exports to China worth over 700 million Euros in 2012 – more than ten times the export value of 2006. Unfortunately, with the rise in demand for foreign wine there has also been an unprecedented surge in counterfeits.