China ranks No 22 on the Global Innovation Index 2017 by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University, and business school INSEAD, moving up by three notches year-on-year. The country is once again the only middle income economy in the top 25 of the innovation list. It has progressed in five indicator categories, including institutions, creative output, and knowledge and technology output.

Shanghai is going to come down heavily this year on internet intellectual property rights infringement and fake products sold online. The crackdown would also target counterfeit infant formula and health products. Authorities in the city busted more than 3,500 cases involving iPR infringement and counterfeit products last year, up 12.9% from 2015. Last year, a total of CNY170 million was involved and Shanghai police caught 1,125 suspects in 670 cases involving intellectual property rights infringement and counterfeit products. In one particular case, 68 people were arrested for making and selling 4,000 bottles of fake luxury liquor. In another case, police busted a gang making and selling machines used to produce fake cigarettes, and 20 machines were seized. Last year, more than 900 websites were shut down for irregularities by Shanghai authorities.

A recent Section 337 investigation application filed with the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) marks the start of a “patent war” concerning robotic vacuum cleaners that is expected to affect the industry worldwide, industrial insiders said. Leading manufacturer of consumer robots iRobot, headquartered in the U.S., filed the complaint against 11 rivals – including three from the Chinese mainland – in April, claiming they had infringed its six patents and requesting the Commission to issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders. As the largest robotic vacuum cleaner provider in the U.S., iRobot has roughly 300 U.S. patents and more than 900 worldwide patents. The patents include technologies for obstacle detection, autonomous floor cleaning and remote control scheduling for autonomous robotic devices. “We encourage the Chinese companies to actively respond to the investigation,” Zhou Nan, Secretary General of the Consumer Electronics Branch at the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products said. “Otherwise, they might be prevented from entering the U.S., a huge market with enormous potential.” The three Chinese companies are Shenzhen Ilife Technology, Shenzhen Silver Star Intelligent Appliances and Suzhou Realpower Electrical Appliance. According to the company, iRobot has captured approximately 60% of the global robot vacuum cleaner market and generated USD660 million in business revenue last year. Yet its market leadership is challenged in China, where domestic manufacturer Ecovacs has held the No 1 position in recent years, with a market share of nearly 70%. To date, Ecovacs has filed more than 1,000 patent applications, including 120 international filings via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the China Daily reports.

Bike-sharing app Youon called off its initial public offering (IPO) – the first one in the sector – after a patent dispute has emerged over its “Uber-style” rental business model. Youon Public Bicycle System, the Jiangsu province-based bike sharing company, has been accused of infringing upon the intellectual property rights relating to “no-pole bike renting systems and methods” in a lawsuit filed at a court in Nanjing, Jiangsu’s capital city. The lawsuit has been filed by Gu Tailai, Founder of Jiangsu SimLink, despite Youon’s IPO having gained the regulator’s approval in April and being set to kick off its online roadshow on May 5. Gu claims he owns the patent of the so-called dock-less bike rental system, which allows users to rent and return a bike whenever and wherever through mobile devices, a similar model adopted by most bike-sharing firms in China. Youon had hoped to raise CNY598 million from the listing and insists it has not violated Gu’s intellectual property rights, due to the difference in its “technological solution and functional approach”. But it has now suspended the IPO and is “carefully checking the issues raised, to protect the interests of investors”, it said. There are now about 30 Chinese start-ups in the bike-renting sector. Leading players such as Tencent-backed Mobike and Didi Chuxing-backed Ofo have secured hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars of funding by providing bike-rental services for as little as CNY1 per hour.

A total of 190,000 illegal publications – including pirated books, software and audio and video products – were destroyed to mark World Intellectual Property Day, and as part of an effort to combat counterfeit publications and protect intellectual property rights, the Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau said. The event, which took place at Huangpu District’s Teenagers Technology Center, is part of a national campaign held by China’s “combat pornography and illegal publications” office. In the first three months this year, the city seized 277,000 illegal publications and pursued 19 cases of infringement of intellectual property.