More than 90% of intellectual property violations handled last year related to infringements on copyrights, patents and trademarks, the Shanghai intellectual Property Court said. The Court accepted a total of 1,877 cases of intellectual property infringements last year, up 14% from 2015. Nearly half, 921 cases, related to copyright piracy, with 27% occurring in cyberspace. This year, the court for the first time released a white paper related to computer and online copyright infringements. The Court’s President Wang Qiuliang said the numbers of such infringements were increasing and were hampering the city’s progress in building a technological innovation center. According to the white paper, 167, or 28%, of the total computer software infringements cases accepted in the past two years concerned foreign firms, from software developers to online game operators. Many cases also concerned online streaming, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co has filed a complaint with the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) over Mercedes-Benz’s use of the “eQ” name for a line of green-energy vehicles. Chery has used the name “eQ” for its two-door battery electric car for two years and wants Mercedes-Benz to stop using the name. Mercedes showed off a concept car for its forthcoming line of electric vehicles last year, saying it would build its first eQ car in a German factory by the end of the decade. A ruling in Chery’s favor would be a blow to Mercedes in a key market for new-energy vehicles as more electric cars are sold in China than in the rest of the world combined. China aggressively promotes green cars to fight air pollution.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has declassified and made public more than 2,300 national defense patents, the PLA Daily reported. The National Defense Intellectual Property Rights Bureau of the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department has declassified about 3,000 national defense patents and opened 2,346 of them to the public. This the first time the PLA has declassified and made public military patents since it began to register such patents in 1985. The measure is intended to facilitate the transfer of military technologies to civilian industries. The patents can be viewed at weain.mil.cn in the “Patent and Achievement” section where a total of 101 pages of detailed patent entries are available for public viewing. The Bureau plans to establish regulations on the confidentiality and declassification of national defense patents, pledging to declassify and publish patents on a regular basis, the China Daily reports.

China’s Trademark Office has approved 38 new trademarks for businesses and products owned by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family. Leaders of the Democratic Party accused China of “trying to curry favor with the President of the United States” and Trump of receiving financial benefits from foreign governments without Congressional consent. Trump’s lawyers in China applied for the trademarks in April 2016 while he was campaigning for President. China has defended its handling of the 38 trademarks it has provisionally approved for President Donald Trump, saying it followed the law in processing the applications, after Trump had struggled in previous years to have the trademarks approved. The new marks could lay the groundwork for an expanded range of branded businesses, including financial, insurance and real estate services, golf clubs, educational institutions, restaurants and bars. It is unclear whether any of these Trump-brand businesses will materialize in China. Many companies register trademarks just to prevent others from using their name inappropriately. More than 225 Trump-related marks are held or sought by others in China, for an array of things including Trump toilets, condoms, pacemakers and even a Trump International Hotel.

Alibaba Group has called for stricter laws and heavier penalties against product counterfeiting. The company said such illegal activities have caused damage to the manufacturing and business environment, and hurt the interest of consumers and merchants. “To date, many of those involved in counterfeiting have escaped sanction, shown by an extremely low conviction rate,” the company said in a statement. “Ambiguities in the law have meant that enforcement officers have found it difficult to classify and quantify cases of counterfeiting let alone commence legal proceedings.” Alibaba said it has identified 4,495 leads on possible counterfeiting cases in 2016, each involving a value of goods exceeding the statutory minimum of CNY50,000 for criminal investigation. Of these, only 1,184 cases were taken on by the relevant authorities, which resulted in just 33 convictions, or 0.7% of the total. Some 37 out of the 47 convicted individuals involved in counterfeiting crimes were granted probation, it added. “The current regulations are no longer able to cope with the need to fight counterfeiting,” Jessie Zheng, Chief Platform Governance Officer of Alibaba, said. “A clear message was sent to society that there will be serious legal consequence to drunk-driving, creating an effective deterrent to this criminal behavior. The same should apply to counterfeiting,” she said.