Utynam's Heirs
01 June 2010
A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam – who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449 diary@managingip.com
Theatre of the absurd in China's courts
As someone who tends to see the glass as half full when it comes to IP enforcement in China, Utynam was, to put it mildly, disappointed to learn that a court in Henan province is apparently forging verdicts.
According to a report in China Daily last month, the forgery was discovered in March this year when the Xinxiang Municipal Intermediate People's Court re-tried a case.
It all started when Maofeng Company won a suit against the Pingyuan Theatre in the Weibin District People's Court in May 2008 for failure to fulfil a contract.
Eight months later the Xinxiang court upheld the verdict. But, rather than accept the defeat and move on, the theatre appealed to the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court using a different verdict issued by the Weibin District People's Court. This time the Court had helpfully decided that Pingyuan Theatre won...
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