New Zealand has lost a trans-Tasman battle after a bid to trademark the term “manuka honey” was rejected by the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office (NZIPO). The Manuka Honey Appellation Society (MHAS), with NZ$6 million (US$3.8 million) in support from the central government, has tried for almost a decade to trademark the term “manuka honey”…

Six South Korean nationals were indicted for leaking the country’s national core technology to China. The stolen technologies pertain to the Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) used in manufacturing semiconductor wafers. The Technology and Design Police Division of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office said on Jan. 26 that they…

A photographer who claims her intellectual property rights were violated by Andy Warhol’s eponymous foundation when it published multiple stylized prints he made based on her photo of the iconic musician Prince, urged the Supreme Court on Oct. 12 to make the foundation pay up. Warhol, a painter, print-maker, and multimedia artist, died in 1987 at age…

In a Supreme Court filing, the Biden administration sided with a photographer who claims her intellectual property rights were violated by Andy Warhol’s eponymous foundation when it published multiple stylized prints he made based on her photo of the iconic musician Prince. Warhol, a painter, print-maker, and multimedia artist, died in 1987 at age 58….

China’s brazen copyright violations of South Korea’s entertainment content have doubled since 2016, says South Korea’s culture ministry. Since 2017, China’s copyright infringements have become a major headache for South Korean content makers. After Beijing cracked down on Korean pop culture in China, in retaliation for South Korea deploying THAAD (a U.S. anti-missile system), South Korea…

China is infamous for its rampant “copycat” culture. Counterfeit and knockoff products continue to dominate China’s domestic markets despite the ongoing CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Being fed up with losses, several South Korean food producers have recently joined forces to address the growing distribution of counterfeit products in China. According to Korea Bizwire,…

Zheng Yuanjie, a household Chinese writer known as the “fairy tale king,” announced the cessation of his 36-year-serialized exclusive magazine from Jan. 1 in order to take time out to deal with copyright lawsuits against the misappropriation and infringement of his fairy tale character images. On Dec. 15, 2021, Zheng announced on Weibo, China’s Twitter,…

China accounted for about 51 percent of counterfeit or substandard COVID-19-related products seized by U.S. customs officials from October 2019 to Sept. 30 last year, according to a newly-released report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Among the products seized by U.S. customs officials were over 12.7 million counterfeit masks, 177,356 COVID-19 test…