With years of unremitting efforts of the Chinese authorities and enterprises, China’s intellectual property industry has made rapid development, of course the trademark industry is no exception. According to statistics released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, there is 2.28 million trademark applications in 2014 alone, with an increase of 21.5% compared with 2013, keeping as the first among the world for 13 consecutive years. By the end of December 2014, the total amount of trademark application is 15.52 million, with 10.02 registrations and 8.39 million in validate.
The third revision of the Trademark Law went into effect since May 2014, is a proactive revision to adapt China’s current economic and social development. It has greatly promoted China’s trademark industry development and has been highly praised by various parties, though there still exist some unresolved problems and leave much room of improvement.
Meanwhile, there are frequent cooperation and exchanges between Chinese authorities and foreign government agencies, embassies, international organizations and enterprises, including U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the UK Embassy, the French Embassy, International Trademark Association (INTA), Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and etc.
Days before the 137th INTA Annual Meeting in San Diego, China IP published this issue specialized on trademark. IP officer of embassy, IP managers of enterprises, professors of universities and lawyers of law firms are all invited to share their views on China’s trademark industry development. China IP also included some typical trademark cases and events in China in this special issue to provide a more vivid landscape of China’s trademark industry in recent years.