In order to further reduce the public burden and promote patent creation and protection, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) has suspended and adjusted some patent fees since August 1. According to reports, this is one of the important concrete measures taken by the IP authority to implement the requirements for deepening the reform of "delegating power, improving regulation and optimizing services", to streamline the power and delegate more powers to lower-level governments and organizations, and to implement the relevant measures for benefiting the people.[link]

In the months leading up to the US midterm elections, the big online sites that inadvertently hosted the worst manipulation back in 2016, like Facebook and Twitter, have adopted new advertising policies to enforce transparency. [link]

A Silicon Valley jury has awarded technology company Lumileds $66 million after finding that a Chinese competitor stole trade secrets.The award, from a Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara jury, is the amount of research and development that Elect-Tech International (ETI), the Chinese company, saved by using Lumileds’ trade secrets.[link]

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is to settle a case with Taiwanese regulators for about $93 million and has agreed to invest $700 million in Taiwan over the next five years.The new settlement replaces a $778 million fine imposed by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission in 2017 when it accused Qualcomm of refusing to sell chips to handset makers that would not agree to its patent-licensing terms.[link]

Intel disclosed another set of processor flaws today that could let attackers steal information stored on computers or third party clouds. Discovered by a number of researchers and reported to Intel in January, the vulnerability includes three varieties.[link]

British broadcaster the BBC has asked US courts to subpoena Twitter and Microsoft in efforts to identify the source of recently-leaked “Doctor Who” footage.The BBC filed its subpoena against Twitter at the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, August 3, a day after the broadcaster filed a similar request against Microsoft at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.[link]

US-based Blackbird Technologies announced yesterday that it has settled a patent enforcement complaint it made against technology company Lenovo for an undisclosed sum.The company, which describes itself as a “new model for individual inventors and small companies to monetise their IP”, filed the lawsuit at the US District Court for the District of Delaware in March 2016.[link]

China's top health authority has begun sending out supervisory teams across the country to ensure that people who may have received substandard rabies vaccines have access to remedial services.[link]

You might not have to splurge on a Pixelbook if you're pining after a Chromebook with Windows 10 support. XDA-Developers has learnedthrough source code that Campfire, the feature that would let Chrome OS dual-boot Windows 10, would be available in multiple "variants" -- that is, on more than one Chrome OS device. [link]

US-based Blackbird Technologies announced yesterday that it has settled a patent enforcement complaint it made against technology company Lenovo for an undisclosed sum.The company, which describes itself as a “new model for individual inventors and small companies to monetise their IP”, filed the lawsuit at the US District Court for the District of Delaware in March 2016.[link]

A media publisher has accused a former employee of stealing trade secrets by continuing to use a Twitter account owned by the company.BH Media Group, which owns and operates 31 daily newspapers in the US, filed its complaint against Andy Bitter at the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Monday, August 6.[link]

China has been the country with the most number of patents published in artificial intelligence (AI), slightly edging the United States and Japan (Note: the three countries combined for 74 of world's total), according to the "China's AI Development Report 2018" released by China Institute for Science and Technology Policy at Tsinghua University.[link]

On July 31, three years after Beijing/Zhangjiakou won the bid of the 2022 Winter Games , the revised Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols went into force. On the day instant, Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games filed a publication application for the first batch of Olympic and Paralympic symbols to the Trademark Office (TMO) under the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).[link]

Siemens Corporation has been accused of infringing a patent relating to a cloud-based data management system.  US-based Akoloutheo filed the complaint for patent infringement at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas yesterday, August 6. It also named Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software, a unit of the company, as a defendant. [link]

Earlier today, Elon Musk tweeted that he's considering taking Tesla private, and buying shareholders out at an above-price rate of $420 if they didn't want to stay invested. Considering the company CEO's, ahem, freewheeling speech on Twitter, it wasn't immediately clear if he was serious. [link]

The term ‘full costs’ in the Copyright Act means paying the full costs and nothing less, Oracle has argued in a response to a writ of certiorari filed by Rimini Street.The global technology company filed its argument on Wednesday, August 1 at the US Supreme Court.  In 2010, Oracle sued Rimini for copyright infringement for downloading Oracle database support materials without a licence. Rimini is a provider of third-party support for Oracle’s enterprise software.[link]

A Californian jury has awarded Canada-based WiLAN $145 million in damages in an ongoing patent infringement dispute with Apple.On Wednesday, August 1, a jury at the US District Court for the Southern District of California awarded the damages for Apple’s infringement of US patent numbers 8,457,145 and 8,537,757, both of which relate to wireless technology.[link]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is seeking to hire a Senior General Counsel for China Intellectual Property Policy in their Alexandria, VA headquarters.  [link]

The market regulator is cracking down on those who manufacture and sell counterfeit or fake products after the Nasdaq-listed online discounter Pinduoduo was the center of heated debate for allowing third-party vendors to offer such goods in violation of intellectual property rights.[link]

Several international brands, including Adidas and Microsoft, have joined a team combating the online sale of counterfeit products that was formed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group last year, Alibaba said on Friday.The Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance now has 105 members, from 16 countries and regions, it said.[link]