For the purpose of manifesting the legislative spirit and requirements of China’s New Trademark Law on the well-known trademark protection system, Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (SAIC) and Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) promulgated The Draft Revision to the Revised Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of Well-known Trademark. This Law shall be entered into force 30 days after the date of promulgation.  

 

 

China’s revised Trademark Law, set to strengthen intellectual property protection and ensure a fair market for trademark holders, has taken effect on May 1st. The amendment to the law has raised the compensation ceiling for trademark infringement to 3 million yuan (about 500,000 U.S. dollars), six times the previous limit. The new law mitigates trademark holders’ responsibility in providing proof of infringement, saying alleged offenders shall provide their account books or other materials for investigation. Otherwise, compensation could be determined according to amounts proposed by trademark holders. The legislation also provides that trademark agencies cannot accept entrustment if they know or should know that their clients are conducting malicious registration or infringing on the trademark rights of others. The law offers protection for well-known trademarks, giving owners the right to ban others from registering their trademarks or using similar ones. The words “renowned trademark” shall no longer be allowed in promotions or advertising. Sounds can be registered as trademarks as long as they are easily distinguishable and recognizable. 

 

The State Council also published an amended version of the Trademark Law regulations, which has also gone into effect on May 1st, aiming at supplementing changes made in the Trademark Law in a more detailed manner.  

 

 

Recently, Provisional Measures of Dongguan for Subsidization for Pledge Financing with Exclusive Right to Use Trademarks was deliberated and adopted at Executive Meeting of Dongguan Municipal Government of Guangdong Province. In future, enterprises would be able to apply for pledge financing with exclusive right to use trademarks in case of problems of capital chain. Dongguan thus becomes the first city of Guangdong Province that initiates subsidization for pledge financing with exclusive right to use trademarks.  

 

The total amount of agricultural registered trademarks in China up to 1.25 million

 

In 2014 International Symposium on Brand and Agriculture Development, government officers, experts and entrepreneurs from 17 countries and areas conducted indepth discussions on issues such as development tend of global brand agriculture, development methods of China’s brands agriculture and etc. The statistics showed that the total amount of agricultural registered trademarks in China was 0.6 million at the end of 2008, however, up to end of 2013, the amount was up to 1.25 million, doubled in five years. 

 

 

On November 10th 2014, the three-day China Trademark Festival (the Festival) was successfully concluded. According to incomplete statistics, by hosting ten forums, the Festival attracted around 5,000 related talents and professionals, including experts, scholars and government officials from around the world as well as officials from WIPO, who gathered in Suzhou discussing the implementation of trademark strategies, and exploring the way to accelerate the internationalization of Chinese brands. The exposition achieved on-site sales of 5 million yuan, and online sales of 150 million yuan, with exhibitors contributing orders of nearly 100 million yuan.  

 

 

China was considering elimination of trademarks that copy names of well-known brands or figures in a bid to curb right infringement. The courts would uphold the Patent Review Committee’s decision to nullify trademarks that are the same or similar to well-known places and trademarks already in use, according to a judicial interpretation released on November 4th by the Supreme People’s Court to solicit public opinion. The courts would also reject individual applications for a large number of trademarks, which was also aimed at unifying trial standards for the courts when dealing with trademark disputes. The behavior of using public figure’s names as trademarks without their permission could not be allowed, so was the behavior of using the names of the dead without getting approval from their inheritors.

 

 

SAIC stated clearly that the focus in terms of market supervision would be protecting trademarks’ exclusive rights, combating unfair competition, examining online marketplaces and supervising cooperate credits. SAIC planned to take notable trademarks, geographical indications and foreign trademarks as priority to strengthen trademark enforcement.  At the same time, it would focus on trade secret theft in areas such as pharmaceuticals and machinery, and combat online counterfeits.  In regards with credits control, it would regularly announce the list of companies with serious violations.  

 

 

A hundred and twenty trademarks were recognized as having the most potential in China in 2013 by China Industry & Commerce News and China Consumers magazine at the end of July. The trademarks were judged on their performance last year and 100 of them were home-developed.  The half-year campaign received 666 trademark candidates from 30 provinces and regions across China. The trademarks covered 12 industries including electronics, clothing, cosmetics, furniture, jewelry and drinks.  

 

 

Local automaker Changan Automobile Co., (Changan) recently reached an agreement with Guangzhou GAC Motor, purchasing a trademark for 3 million yuan ($482,680). Changan was granted a V-shaped trademark in 2012, but GAC Motor had a similar trademark registered before that, which was not used on a product. Both sides started to negotiate the trademark transfer last year. Changan’s President Zhu Huarong said the transfer was a win-win result.  

 

 

May 4th was the first weekday after the implementation of new Chinese Trademark Law. People were crowded into the Trademark Office. Enterprises and trademark agencies across China，including Shanghai Hengyuanxiang Group， scrambled to register China’s first sound trademark. It was reported that the trademark agent of Hengyuanxiang Group has filed an application of sound trademark on its classic sound. The Trademark Office accepted the application on the same day. It was expected to obtain the registered trademark in no more than 9 months.  

 

 

 

 

As of the end of 2013, China saw its trademark applications totaling 13,241,337 with 1,881,546 newly filed in 2012, up 14.15% on a year-on-year basis, according to statistics of the trademark department under SAIC. By the end of 2013, trademark registrations in China have accumulated to 8,652,358, increasing from 7.656 million in 2012, meanwhile registered trademarks in force have amounted to 7,237,894, up from 6.4 million.

 

Statistics also show that applications of trademark opposition in 2013 reached 34,667, declining by 4.58% compared with that in 2012.

 

 

China’s legislature on August 30th 2013 passed a new trademark law to crack down on infringement and ensure a fair market for Chinese and foreign trademark holders.

 

After three readings over the past two years, the revised law was passed at the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature. The law adopted the principle of good faith during the registration and use of trademarks. Infringement of the trademark rights of others could result in fines worth five times the sales volume resulting from illegal business. The New Trademark Law will take effect on May 1st 2014.

 

 

SAIC had taken an active approach in governing domestic food market and improving market owners’, registration procedures. Local AICs were urged to fully comply with applicable legislations, including laws and regulations on trademark, advertising, anti-monopoly and unfair competition, to give full play of their role as a market regulator and administrative enforcement executor.

 

 

 

In 2013, Henan saw its filings on trademark registrations hit 57,591, up 20%, in which 66 applications were on Chinese Well-known Trademarks. As of the end of 2013, registered trademarks in force in the province accumulated to 184,900, up 16%. With the rapid registration increment, trademark quality has also been significantly improved.

 

Statistics show that the number of Chinese Well-known Trademarks in the province reached 153 with 34 newly added in 2013. As many as 758 applications for Henan Famous Trademarks were submitted, with 461 approved, making the total of such marks reach 2,241.

 

 

On July 16th, Zhejiang Higher People’s Court rendered a judgment that French wine producer Castel should stop using the Ka Si Te trademark and ordered the company to pay 33,734,546.26 yuan (more than $5 million) to Shanghai Banti Wine Company and Spanish-Chinese producer Li Dao Zhi. The Court also called for Castel to issue a public apology.

 

It was said that this was one of the largest damage compensation seen in China in IP infringement lawsuits. This concluded the 6-year IP infringement disputes between the two parties.

 

 

Liaoning Higher People’s Court ruled that due to the use of the trademark “Orion,” Jiangsu Orion Food Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Jiangsu Orion) infringed the trademark right of Orion Food Co., Ltd. (Orion Company) and had constituted unfair competition.

 

The court ordered Jiangsu Orion to change its name, make an apology and pay compensation.

 

 

Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court of China sided with Guccio Gucci S.p.A. in a dispute with Guess over trademark infringement and unfair competition activities in China. Gucci claimed that Guess and affiliates were imitating its collections and image, to the detriment of the Italian luxury brand. This was the second international jurisdiction in which Gucci had won a lawsuit against Guess, following the June 2012 ruling of a U.S. court. Other verdicts were pending in Italy and France; in June, Gucci appealed a Milan ruling that Guess’s Quattro G-diamond pattern was unrelated to Gucci’s interlocking double-G pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number of applications submitted for trademark registration reached 10.54 million at the end of June, ranking the first in the world. China was also at the top of the world’s rankings in terms of registered trademarks, which totaled 7.17 million by the end of June, and valid trademark registration, which totaled 6.09 million. Zhou Bohua, head of SAIC, said that trademarks have become an important means of competition for Chinese companies to approach overseas markets. However, he noted that the number of influential trademarks in China is still low.

 

 

The Symposium on commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Trademark Law was held in the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on the afternoon of August 22nd 2012.

 

SPC’s Pre Vice President Xi Xiaoming attended and delivered the conference.

 

He emphasized that the people’s courts gained rich experience on trademark trial in the past thirty years. First, trademark trial work must concentrate on and serve the overall interests; second, the people’s courts must put law enforcement and case settlement at the first place; third, the people’s courts must insist on emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts; and the fourth, the courts must pay much attention to research work and trial theory innovation.

 

 

In order to improve trademark registration service, SAIC made a series of regulations. First, enhance trademark registration service: Tongda Trademark Service Center under SAIC deployed enough resources to strengthen logistics services and better emergency preplan, and streamline procedures.

 

Second, reinforce the construction of system to ensure efficiency and quality. Third, strengthen basic work and team building. Fourth, create performance evaluation mechanism: Build evaluation mechanism from the following five aspects, i.e. thought, work style, business, system and ability.

 

It was reported that the Trademark Appeal Board of SAIC had rejected an application by Nike Inc. for registration of the renowned athlete Liu Xiang’s signature as a trademark. Authorities stated that the name had already been registered by a Shanghai company many years ago when Liu was just three years old. Since both trademarks are in the apparel category, consumers would get confused if the Liu Xiang signature trademark was approved for Nike.

 

 

In 2012, the trademark application of “National Liquor Moutai” filed by Guizhou Moutai had passed the preliminary examination of China’s Trademark Office, which caused an uproar in the industry. Shanxi Fenjiu Group, Hebei Hengshui Laobaigan Liquor-making (Group) Co., Ltd., Guizhou Renhuai Nanguo Liquor-making Group, Century Law Firm, Chengdu Lijiu IP Agency, Jingxi Ruian Design Company and a Chongqing consulting company had all filed objections against the registration of the “National Liquor Moutai” trademark.

 

 

 

Succeeding its honors as the only “Internationally Well-known Trademark” and “Model Enterprise of the National Trademark Strategy Implementation” in China’s air conditioner industry, GREE received another top award in domestic trademark development—”China’s Golden Trademark” award. So far, GREE has 4000 patents, including 710 invention patents and 6 international leading patents.  

 

 

 

In order to support domestic SMEs seeking to develop their own brands and overcome difficulties in intangible assets financing, the Shanghai Culture Assets and Equity Exchange and China’s SMEs Brand Development and Model Base affiliates to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly established Shanghai Brand Trading Center on August 28th 2011. This established the first domestic brand trading center, with the purpose of providing professional services concerning brands protection, revitalizing the old brands, integrating and building cutting-edge brands, designs and other creative transactions.

 

 

The special law enforcement actions, named as “safeguard the renowned enterprises and brands,” had been launched by the branch of Bureau of Industry and Commerce in Meishan City, Sichuan Province in order to combat the unfair competition severely and effectively curb the illegal behavior of selling fake well-brand wines.

 

The Bureau had closed 2 trademark infringement cases in the first half year of 2011, with total value 86,000 yuan (USD13, 394.80).

 

 

In June 2009, SAIC issued the Views on the Implementation of Vigorously Promoting the Trademark Strategy under the Outline of a National Intellectual Property Strategy.

 

In January 2011, 26 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) were setting up leadership teams to establish trademark strategies. Most were headed by government leaders.

 

In addition, 21 provinces had promulgated the implementation document of trademark strategy.

 

Trademark strategy had risen from an individual sector action to a comprehensive government action.

 

 

Since the beginning of 2011, the industry and commerce authorities across China continued to improve trademark examination efficiency and nowadays, trademark examination cycle has been shortened to 10 months, reaching the international level, learnt from the meeting on industry and commerce administrative management work across the country on December 26th. In 2000, trademark applications outnumbered examined ones and trademark backlog soon appeared.

 

Till the end of the year 2007, examination period had exceeded 3 years. By the end of the year 2010, the period was shortened to 1 year and solved backlog issue.

 

 

Fu Shuangjian, former deputy commissioner of SAIC, expressed on the press conference of “China’s Intellectual Property Development in 2010” that the online application for trademarks should be further promoted. By the end of the”Twelfth Five-Year Plan,” valid trademark registrations would have reached 8 million, over 90% of which would have been applied for online. The objectives and measures, on one hand, were emphasized on the enforcement of laws; and on the other hand, on the timely formulation of related regulations and policies so as to improve China’s trademark legal system.

 

 

SAIC announced their substantial results since China launched the national campaign on combating IPR violations and on the production and distribution of fake and shoddy products, as of February 11th, SAIC had totally handled 30,000 infringement well-known trademark cases. Of all the 38,000 cases handled, 30,000 infringing well-know trademarks, 5,347 involving foreign trademark.  SAIC had received and handled 42,000 complaints, retrieved 130 million yuan of economic loss for the consumers. Among 450,000 trademark filings, 81,000 were rejected and some of them were filed with malicious intent.  

 

 

Three enterprises in Zhejiang Province received letters in January and March from the Chinese Embassy to Canada, forwarded by SAIC, on the preemption of their trademarks in Canada. The enterprises, MengNa Hosiery, Newglory Jewelry and Kangnai, are all locals in Zhejiang Province.  

 

 

Hainan has long marketed itself as an international tourism island.  But Shandong Tai’an Dafuhao Advertisement Co., Ltd. had already registered the trademark for 国际旅游岛 (International Tourism Island) under Category 39 Travel and Tourism. The Administration for Industry & Commerce of Hainan appealed for cancellation. The Administration planed to incite Hainan Provincial Tourism Association to register it as a collective trademark. Tai’an Dafuhao Advertisement responded that if any company from Hainan wishes to buy out the trademark, they would be happy to consider the deal.  

 

 

 

 

 

China had thoroughly resolved the problem of trademark examination backlogs and the time it took to process a trademark application had been reduced to less than a year from the previous three years when the expedited approach was not employed.

 

Before 2008, the volumes of trademark applications being examined were all below the numbers of applications received in the same year. It was not until 2008 that the historic change happened.

 

 

In order to support domestic SMEs The Trade Mark Office firstly publicized the examination standards for trademarks containing Chinese characters “中 国” or the initial of which is the character “国”. It was informed that all the applications for trademarks in the format of “国 +the name of merchandise bearing the trademark” or the name of the trademark containing “国+the name of merchandise bearing the trademark” such as “国酒,” “国烟” and “国茶” would be rejected due to exaggerating publicity and fraudulence, lack of notable characteristics and bad influence.

 

On the occasion of two-year anniversary of the implementation of Outline on National IP Strategy, the reporter learnt from SAIC that in 2009, China investigated 51,044 cases related to trademarks, decreasing by 9.87%, indicating the improvement of the protection environment of trademark exclusive rights. According to the relevant principal of the Trademark Office, in 2009, the applications for trademark registration reached 830,500, up 18.96% and reaching the record high. As of the end of 2009, the accumulated number of the filings for trademark registration was 7,222,500.

 

 

In recent years, judicial cases over trademark in China kept increasing, said Xia Junli, Chief Justice of IPR Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court at 2010 China IPR Summit Forum. In 2009, the courts in the nation received 6906 pieces of trademark-related civil cases of first instance, increasing by 10.8% compared with 2008 and up 79.1% compared with 2007; the trademark-related administrative cases of first instance heard in the courts were 392 pieces in 2007, 484 pieces in 2008, while in 2009, the number hit 1,376 pieces, rising by 284.3% compared with 2008.

 

 

2010 China IPR Protection Action Plan elaborated 164 concrete measures and the plan also disclosed that the Supreme People’s Court would draft out judicial explanation or standard documents for the trial of the cases involving patent and trademark rights grants and determinations. In respect of IPR legislation, in 2010, China would amend or institute 23 laws, regulations and provisions related to patents, trademarks, copyrights and new plant varieties.

 

It was learnt from the Trademark Office that, up to December 31st 2009, China had registered and preliminarily examined 771 Geographical Indications (GI). GI products have the characteristic of non-replacement, and similar products produced outside the area would not have these characteristics.

 

In recent years, SAIC fully performed their functions, and actively guided application for registration of GI, established a “green channel” for GI application, shortened appraisement cycle, and made the GI registration and preliminary examination amount 6 increase significantly.

 

 

 

 

According to SAIC, in 2009, SAIC advanced over its preset objective by examining 1.4147 million trademark applications, which effectively beef up the implementation of trademark strategy. In 2009, SAIC examined 114,700 (88.69%) more trademark applications over its original goal of 1.3 million. The examination period had cut to 17 months. In 2009, SAIC reached its historic high in examining, climbing to 830,500 and ranking No.1 in the world for 8 years in a row. As of the end of 2009, China had become the top trademark power house in the world, with sweeping No.1s of numbers of applications, applications examined and living registered trademarks.

 

 

 “Up to now, China has approved 714,000 pieces agricultural product trademarks, GI trademarks are 735 pieces and 24 of them were authorized as well-known trademarks by SAIC.” This was learnt from the International Seminar on Geographical Indication in Asian-Pacific Region which was co-sponsored by SAIC and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Up to October 2009, China’s accumulative amount of trademark applications were 7,063,000 pieces, accumulative registration amount were 4,034,000 pieces, and effective registration amount were 3,250,000 pieces, and China had became the biggest trademark country in the world.

 

 

With the theme of Implementing Trademark Strategy and Constructing Innovation-Oriented County, 2009 (the 3rd) China International Trademark Festival opened in Qingdao of Shandong province on November 9th, which was the most influential event within the domestic trademark industry. The trademark festival attracted over 70 guests from 20 or more countries, districts and international organizations including WIPO, the International Trademark Association, the U.S., Japan and Ukraine, and more than 3,000 delegates. This trademark festival hand held a series of events including China Trademark Annual Meeting, Domestic & Foreign Trademark Agency Development Forum, China Trademark Contest, Agricultural Product & Geographic Indication Exhibition and etc.

 

 

Taiwan Intellectual Property Office released that, in recent years, the trademark registration applications filed by applicants from the Mainland in Taiwan were increasing by degrees year after year. In the first nine months of 2009, there were 836 applications and the total number this year was expected to outnumber one thousand pieces. By contrast, the trademark registration applications filed by Taiwanese were descending continuously, even negative increase occurred in the three consecutive years according to related statistics. Oppositely, the trademarks registered by Taiwanese in the Mainland were increasing in a row.

 

 

On November 30th, State SAIC issued Work Plan for Trademark (2008-2012), which brought forward guiding thoughts, basic principles, goals and measures for the trademark work during the period.

 

In order to carry out the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy, further utilize trademark resources to facilitate a faster and better economic development, and realize the transformation to a leading country of trademark, in the beginning of 2008, SAIC brought forward a 3-year (2008-2010) plan and 5-year (2008-2012) plan to reach the international level.

 

 

On August 20th, “Wahaha” Cup 2009 China Trademark Design Competition, the first countrywide trademark design competition in China, was launched in Beijing. The competition invited the experts of art universities and colleges, the elites in deign field and the law experts in trademark field and so on, it constructed strategic cooperation with some portal websites as well to issue the special of the competition and put up online voting in the whole society.

 

According to the Trademark Office, applications for international registration of trademarks sank between January and May 2009 compared with the same period of 2008. Chinese users filed 712 applications for international registration via the Trademark Office, down 11.2% from 802 of the same period in 2008. Foreign users filed 6,018 applications for territorial extension of international registration via the World Intellectual Property Organization, down 5.8% from 6,391. Financial crisis was the most direct factor causing the drop.

 

 

China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) had released a judicial explanation on handling cases concerning reputed trademark infringement, which had taken effect on May 1st. The explanation summarized relevant trail experience and was to improve the courts’ judicial protection system of well-known trademarks, enhance the authority and credibility of judicial protection and safeguard the market order featuring fair competition.

 

The explanation made clear basic requirements for reputed trademarks as well as protection and recognition.

 

It standardized judicial measures in handling civil cases concerning trademark infringement and provided legal backup for judicial protection over well-established trademarks.

 

 

In 2008, the volume of trademark registrations in China reached nearly 700,000, ranking the first in the world for 7 consecutive years.

 

The above figure was given at the WIPO Inter-regional High-Level Forum on Intellectual Property held in Beijing on March 30th 2009. Since China restored trademark register in 1979, the amount of trademark applications had increased from 26,000 in 1980 to nearly 700,000 in 2008. At the same time, the quality and efficiency of trademarks examination and review had been significantly improved. In 2008, SAIC received 17,000 applications for international trademark registration, with an increase of 4.9%.

 

 

In 2010, SAIC would carry out the trademark strategy. For the registration and protection of agricultural product trademarks and GI, commercial and industrial entities would continue to set up “Green Channel” for GI registration applications, reinforce the protection of GI exclusive rights, transfer the main protection work from cities to countries and severely combat trademark infringement actions harming farmers. Besides, commercial and industrial departments will enhance cooperation with WIPO and African IP Organization as well as other trademark administration organs in order to create sound IPR protection environment for China’s GI products in the world market

 

 

According to statistics from, at the end of 2008, China had 531 geographical indications and registered 600,000 trademarks for agricultural products. According to a survey in 2008 by administrative authorities for industry and commerce on 22 geographical indications for cultivated agricultural produce, the average price of agricultural products tripled once registered with a geographical indication trademark. In some cases, the price of the agricultural product rose 28 times. Relevant officials with the Trademark Office suggested avoiding indiscriminate applications to develop geographical indications, and paying particular attention to enhancing the ability to maintain the brand.

 

 

In 2008, SAIC intensified the protection to well-known trademark and recognized 228 well-known trademarks among which 136 were in handling trademark administration cases, 33 were in examination of opposition cases and 59 were by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB). As of the end of 2008, the amount of well-known trademarks in China had reached 1,359 pieces.

 

According to the amounts of well-known trademarks, the first ten provinces or cities were Zhejiang (175), Guangdong (143), Shandong (127), Jiangsu (119), Fujian (111), Beijing (76), Shanghai (72), Hebei (53), Sichuan (48) and Hunan (47).

 

 

To further enhance the efficiency of trademark registration and standardize the work of trademark objection, the Trademark Office issued a circular to trademark applicants and trademark agencies to further explain related issues of trademark objection.

 

The circular pointed out that, according to relevant provisions of the Trademark Law and Implementation Regulations for Trademark Law, the application for trademark objection should contain clearly defined requests and fact-based written expressions.

 

 

The 4th China Trademark Annual Meeting, hosted by Chinese Trademark Association, was launched at Xianghe of Hebei Province. Vice Commissioner of SIPO Zhang Qin was invited to deliver keynote speech at the meeting. In his statement, Zhang pointed out, under the circumstance of economy globalization and IPR rules internationalization, China’s economy development would be boosted, only relying on independent innovation and S&T progress. He expressed that trademark strategy is an integral part of National IPR Strategy and trademark is the comprehensive carrier of enterprise’s IPR.

 

 

On November 25th, the 2008 Crossstrait Trademark Seminar was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

 

Then-Deputy Director of State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) Fu Shuangjian attended the seminar and made a speech, hoping that the crossstrait trademark cooperation and exchanges could better promote cross-strait economic prosperity and development. In his speech, Fu pointed out that in recent years industrial and commercial departments across the country have investigated and dealt with 62 cases of counterfeiting Taiwan trademarks, worth 4,850,000 yuan, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and 5 interests of Taiwan businessmen.

 

SAIC issued Several Opinions on Supporting Production Restoration, Market Invigoration and Reconstruction in Earthquake-stricken Area (Opinions) to support the trademark registration and implementation of trademark strategy in the earthquake-stricken area.

 

According to the Opinions, due to the impact of earthquake, the trademark holders may not timely follow the procedures of trademark renewal, reply to trademarks objection or provide related evidence, which may lead to the loss of trademark rights. In the light of force majeure, the related parties can provide certifications issues by the local administrations for industry and commerce and conduct relevant procedures within a certain period of time.

 

China made progress in its battle to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) last year with better implementation of relevant laws and regulations, the State Intellectual Property Office said in Beijing. By the end of 2007, China’s registered trademarks have surpassed 3 million, according to a press conference of the Information Office of the State Council. In 2007 alone, the Trademark Office received 708,000 trademark registration applications. Of these, 405,000 have been examined and 263,000 ratified. Offices of industrial and commercial administration at all levels investigated 50,318 cases of trademark violations in 2007.

 

 

 

On April 17th, Deputy Director of the Trademark Office Fan Hanyun released that based on the Trademark Law, the registered GIs totaled 301 in China from 1994 when the SAIC began to protect GIs till the end of 2007.

 

According to Fan Hanyun, to increase farmers’ income by agricultural product trademarks and geographical indications, 2007 No.1 Document of the CPC Central Committee required to protect trademarks, GIs and famous brands related to agricultural products.

 

On one hand, the SAIC encouraged and guided farmers to register trademarks and GIs for agricultural products and on the other hand, SAIC intensified the protection of GIs and agricultural 8 product trademarks.