Friday____________________ April 26

Overseas parties file more lawsuits

Intellectual property rights lawsuits that involve an overseas party saw a major increase in Shanghai last year.

Shanghai courts handled 240 civil lawsuits involving a party not on the mainland in 2012, a 23.7 percent year-on-year increase, according to an IPR white paper released by Shanghai High People's Court.

More than 80 percent of the claims by the overseas parties got support from judicial departments, the white paper said.

The rise in the number of the lawsuits also shows that some Chinese companies did not show sufficient respect to others' intellectual property rights, and in some cases they intentionally infringed on others' rights, said Zhu Dan, president of the third tribunal for civil trials at the Shanghai High People's Court, at a news conference about the white paper's release.

Paying to download music is 'inevitable'

The deputy director of China's copyright administration said it's "inevitable" that people will have to start paying to download music. If website operators still want to provide online music for users to download for free and make up their operating costs with other revenues, such as advertising, it will be OK, said Yan Xiaohong.

"However, the premise should be to get permission from composers and pay them, no matter what decision the online operators make," he said.

Two of China's largest online music downloading websites, Baidu and Tencent, didn't respond to a request for comment. On April 25, pirated publications and CDs were destroyed in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, to mark World Intellectual Property Day. (Photo 1)

Monday_____________________ April 29

Luxury brands slow expansion

Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury group by turnover, said it plans to adjust its expansion in China, and that might mean pulling back from some smaller cities.

The head of the company, which owns a portfolio of more than 60 prestigious brands such as Louis Vuitton, said it had found that many people from smaller cities tend to go to bigger cities to shop for luxury items.

Louis Vuitton has expanded rapidly in China, and has more than 40 stores throughout the Chinese mainland, including cities in central and western regions.

And the company is not alone. Gucci, the Italian fashion and leather goods brand, also said it planned to slow its expansion in China this year. (Photo 2)

Mobile gaming's revenue is growing

Internet-based gaming on mobile digital platforms is a fraction of all Internet-based gaming in China, but recent data suggest the revenue gap will narrow.

China's gaming industry overall - online, home-based consoles, social networking websites and mobile devices combined - grew 35.1 percent last year, to $9.7 billion, compared to 2011 revenue, according to the annual China Game Industry Report by digital-media information provider TechWeb.

Mobile gaming, which is still its early stages in China, accounted for sales revenue last year of $520 million. That, however, represented a 91 percent jump from 2011. The number of Chinese playing mobile games shot up 74 percent to 89 million users.

Tuesday____________________ April 30

Alibaba buys stake in Sina Weibo

Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company, has paid $586 million for an 18 percent share of Sina Weibo, the Chinese counterpart to Twitter.

The deal, which values Sina Weibo at $3.26 billion, is expected to combine Alibaba's e-commerce strength with Sina Weibo's user base to explore social commerce and develop marketing solutions for merchants. Alibaba has an option to boost its stake in Sina Weibo to 30 percent.

Alibaba Group, of which Yahoo Inc holds about a 23 percent stake, runs a business-to-business online trading platform called Alibaba.com, the eBay-like Taobao.com and Tmall.com, as well as the Paypal-like Alipay. Transactions on its websites last year reached about 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion). (Photo 3)

China UnionPay starts US prepaid card

China UnionPay, the dominant bank card in China, made another move to expand internationally by launching its first card in the United States.

The prepaid travel card was jointly issued by UnionPay's subsidiary UnionPay International, which focuses on international business, and the Bancorp Bank, a local bank and subsidiary of Bancorp Inc.

The travel card is designed to meet payment needs of American tourists and business visitors who travel to the Asia-Pacific region.

As the largest prepaid-card issuer in the US, Bancorp has a sales network of more than 550 banks, which can promote UnionPay cards to a wider range of clients.

Zhongxing-11, a communications satellite, was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province on Thursday. Zhao Zhongzhi / Xinhua

Wednesday___________________ May 1

Chinese firms raise stakes in US

Privately held Chinese companies increased their investment in the US in the first three months of this year, and spent more over the past 15 months on US deals than in the previous 11 years combined, according to a report.

During the first quarter, Chinese companies concluded eight mergers or acquisitions and nine greenfield investments - those involving construction of factories or offices - worth a total of $2.2 billion, according to a report by Rhodium Group, a New York firm that tracks Chinese investment in the US.

Chinese acquisitions in the US now under discussion or awaiting regulatory approval have a total value of over $10 billion, the highest ever for the category, according to Rhodium.

Business-jet operators, aircraft increase

The number of business jet operators in the Chinese mainland in 2012 was 187, the most in the Asia and Pacific region.

Statistics from JetNet LLC, the US-based air industry market research firm, show that China's business aircraft fleet increased 103 percent in the decade to 2012.

The sector has outperformed the growth of the general civil aviation industry in China, which experienced a 28 percent rise in 2011, according to Li Jia-xiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

There were 15 business jet operators in China in 2012 and 41 enterprises were preparing to launch operations, according to the CAAC, with many operators reporting that the economic slowdown has done little to dampen enthusiasm to enter the fray.

Thursday___________________ May 2

Manufacturing slows in April

China's manufacturing sector experienced slower growth in April.

China's Purchasing Managers' Index of the manufacturing sector declined to 50.6 last month from 50.9 in March, against 50.1 in February, said the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

The official PMI has now remained above 50.0 for seven consecutive months, indicating expansion in factory production. Any reading below 50 means contraction.

Industrial company profits also increased more slowly during the first three months, to 12.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with 17.2 percent from January to February, the NBS said. (Photo 4)

Nixon's grandson leads 'legacy journey'

A grandson of Richard Nixon is leading a delegation of 40 US dignitaries in retracing the 37th president's 1972 visit to China.

Christopher Nixon Cox, 34, who is the son of the president's older daughter, Tricia, and her husband, Edward Cox, described the 10-day trip as a tribute to Nixon a century after his birth. That diplomatic coup ended 25 years of mutual silence and cleared the way for the establishment of formal ties between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

The "Nixon Centennial Legacy Journey" will feature visits to the same venues in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai that Nixon and his entourage toured. The delegation touched down on Wednesday at Beijing Capital International Airport, the same place Nixon stepped off Air Force One on Feb 21, 1972, and shook hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

Cheap gold. That's what thousands of Chinese mainlanders in Hong Kong were searching for over the three-day May Day holiday. Gold prices in Hong Kong are lower than in the mainland, and the price of gold bullion has so far fallen 14 percent this year as investors worldwide sold the metal after a decade-long rally. Lam Yik Fei / Bloomberg

(China Daily 05/03/2013 page8)