[JURIST] A Beijing court spokesman announced Friday that the court had ruled against the Chongqing Lifan Industry Group, which must stop selling lookalike Honda brand motorbikes and must pay the Japanese Honda Motor Company 1.47 million yuan ($177,600 USD) in compensation. Analysts say that China is taking a tougher stand on intellectual property rights and, in the face of international sanctions, is beginning to enforce international standards. China has been rampant with intellectual property piracy, but several court rulings in the past week have given copyright and patent holders renewed hope:

• the copyright to cartoon comic character Garfield was upheld Tuesday;
• also Tuesday, the Lego Company had its building-block toys protected; and
• rights to Peter Rabbit were enforced on Thursday in a dispute as to whether the rights still belonged to a British firm or had expired 50 years after the author's 1943 death.

Analysts agree that protection is moving forward swiftly in China, where as recently as the beginning of this year, Blockbuster International withdrew its video rental stores from China because movie piracy was so prevalent. BBC News has more, and the Bloomberg group has background on the parties in the Honda litigation.