On September 21, 2016, the regional workshop “Intermediaries and Rights Holders----Working Together to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy”, which was jointly hosted by International Trademark Association (INTA) and Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC-BASCAP), was held successfully in Kerry Hotel, Beijing. More than 150 attendees, including senior officials from Beijing Intellectual Property Court and General Administration of Customs of China and senior representatives of more than 100 transnational corporations and international organizations such as International Chamber of Commerce and Conference of Asia Pacific Express Couriers (CAPEC), attended the workshop.
Charles Feng, a partner with East & Concord Partners and also a lawyer, was invited to lecture at the workshop. During session 2 “Eliminating the Criminal’s Place of Doing Business” of the workshop, Feng gave a lecture named “Who should be liable? - New development of secondary liability for trademark infringement in post-Silk era” in English, which received full attention and unanimous high praise from the attendees. The other speakers lectured at the same session included Zeeger Vink from Maus Frères International Services (MFIS), Ray Tai from REACT China / Asia Pacific and Edward Yang from Baker & McKenzie IP Agency (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Based on major and seminal cases such as COACH v. Shanghai Longhua Accessory Market Co., Ltd and GUCCI v. Beijing Silk Market Co., Ltd, Feng’s lecture mainly focused on what constitutes a secondary infringement liability for landlord and the new development of secondary infringement liability for landlord since Beijing Silk Market case in 2006. Feng also introduced Tiffany v. Ebay and Hardrock case in his lecture, these cases were supposed to be the milestone cases of secondary infringement liability of landlord in the US. By presenting the similarities and difference between China and the US, Feng made a forecast about the new development may occur regarding the secondary infringement liability of landlord in China.
The workshop concluded with a Q & A session. Feng had a discussion with other speakers about the intellectual property protection issue related to retail and e-commerce platform at first. Feng also answered questions from the attendees, professional and informative, his answers were highly commended by those present.
