On 29 September 2007, a PRC entity, Xintong Tiandi Technology (Beijing) Company Limited (“Xintong”), filed a trademark application for the word “IPHONE” in class 18 (“Opposed Mark”) with the PRC Trade Marks Office (“TMO”). The goods covered by the application are a range of leather goods, wallets and cases under sub-classes 1801 and 1802. On 26 April 2010, Apple Inc. (“Apple”) filed an opposition against the Opposed Mark. It should be noted, however, that Apple does not have any China trademark applications or registrations for the word “IPHONE” in class 18 that pre-date the filing date of the Opposed Mark.
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A sculpture in Karamy, Xinjiang, China has recently caught a lot of media attention because of its striking resemblance with a famous bean-shaped sculpture in Chicago, known as “Cloud Gate“ (or colloquially as “the Bean”). The Cloud Gate has been a major feature of Chicago‘s landscape since its installation in 2006. While the Cloud Gate is shaped like a bean,
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