Swedish appliance maker Electrolux won a trademark-infringement lawsuit against three Chinese companies and was compensated CNY121,000, Shanghai’s Huangpu District People’s Court said. Electrolux said the three domestic companies illegally produced and sold washing machines and refrigerators with as trademark “Elekes”, which was quite similar to Electrolux’s registered trademarks in China. Some products were even printed with Swedish flags and logos such as “High Tech from Sweden,” which seemed a deliberate effort to mislead shoppers, Electrolux said. The plaintiff also ordered one of the three defendants, Qingdao Elekes Electronic Appliance Co, to change its Chinese company name, which contained exactly the same Chinese characters as Electrolux’s Chinese brand name. The court said the pronunciation of “Elekes” was similar to that of Electrolux, both of which had no actual meaning and could be mistaken by buyers. Electrolux established Electrolux (China), a fully-owned subsidiary, in China in 1995.

China’s Supreme People’s Court is drafting a judicial interpretation to protect online intellectual property rights, which is expected to be released this month. Disputes in online copyright infringement have taken up half of the copyright cases last year. In the first 10 months of 2011, the number of intellectual property right infringement cases exceeded 52,000, of which 60% were copyright infringement disputes. The number of intellectual property rights cases rose 42% year-on-year, exceeding 50,000 for the first time. China currently has four laws and 19 regulations related to intellectual property rights protection, covering patents, trademarks and other fields. Liu Chuntian, Director of the Intellectual Property Institute of Renmin University of China, said that current laws and regulations are already sufficient in fighting online copyright infringement. “But it is equally important to protect the industry’s prosperity by ensuring that online service providers who have carried out their obligations should be exempt from rights infringement liability,” he said. Internet service providers are exempt from infringement liabilities if they take down disputed content after receiving a notice from the copyright owner. Zhejiang-based Taobao.com, China’s leading online retail platform, said it has deleted more than 47 million pieces of disputed information after receiving notice from copyright owners since the company was established in 2003, thereby managing to escape hundreds of lawsuits related to copyright violation, the China Daily reports.

BMW China has been ordered to stop using the image of a Long March rocket in an advertisement and pay CNY90,000 in compensation to the manufacturer of the rocket. Fengtai District People’s Court in Beijing heard that BMW used the image of the Long March 2F rocket in the ad to gain a competitive edge, leading to the perception that the carmaker had consent from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, designer and manufacturer of the rocket. The ad could also mislead people into thinking that there was cooperation between the Academy and the carmaker, which would be unfair competition and impair the interests of the Academy. BMW argued the rocket photo was considered public property and that it utilized it properly to show the development of technology.

Chinese authorities will set up a permanent government work group in an effort to fight intellectual property rights infringement, and the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy products, following an eight-month campaign where authorities investigated 156,000 low-level cases involving products worth CNY3.43 billion. Police also solved 16,000 cases involving goods worth CNY13.12 billion and arrested 29,000 people. The work group will be led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

Billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson, a member of the UK Prime Minister’s business advisory group, has warned China that it risks being expelled from the World Trade Organization (WTO) over copyright breaches including rip-offs of his inventions, including a vacuum cleaner and blade hand dryer. A two-speed patent system appears to discriminate against non-Chinese applications, he said. “They are creating an unlevel playing field by taking our technology and selling it all over the world,” he added. Dyson argues that China benefits from strictly monitored IP regimes outside its own borders, but has failed to crack down on domestic offenders.

• The Intermediate People’s Court in Shenzhen has rejected a lawsuit initiated by Apple, accusing Proview Technology (Shenzhen) of infringing its iPad trademark. It is the latest move in a protracted tug-of-war over the name. Proview, it said, lawfully registered the iPad trademark as long ago as 2000 for products in a number of countries including China. Apple developed its iPad tablet computer some years after that, it said.