Trademark exclusive rights

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) will launch various special campaigns to protect trademark exclusive rights, strengthen supervision on selling counterfeit goods and consolidate co-operation with related departments to solve the conflict between enterprise names and trademarks.

In the future, SAIC will further intensify co-ordination of major cases with foreign elements, and construction of co-ordinated mechanisms with foreign investment enterprises.

During previous special campaigns, SAIC reinforced certification and protection work in respect of trademark objections, trademark management and trademark disputes.

From 2004 to the end of 2005, SAIC approved 330 well-known trademarks including 35 foreign trademarks of the US, France, Japan, the UK, Germany, and Italy.

Copyright export

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, a Chinese delegation signed a number of co-operation agreements with foreign publishing houses. On the first day of the fair they exported nearly 600 pieces of book copyright, which surpassed the number during previous fairs.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is one of the most famous book copyright fairs. It attracts more than 300,000 visitors from all over the world every year, and more than half of the exhibitors are international publishers.

Fake brands

Hong Kong Customs officers cracked a case involving the producing, packaging and distributing of counterfeit Chinese cough medicine. Six people were arrested. In another operation, officers netted seven people for forging labels on pomelos.

The officers raided a manufacturing site and a distribution company in two factory buildings in Kwai Chung, and three dispensaries located in Shamshuipo and Yau Ma Tei.

They seized 15,000 bottles of counterfeit cough pills, worth about HK$40,000. Six men and two women, aged 32 to 59, were arrested. Of the arrested, a 54-year-old man was suspected to be the mastermind.

A company had registered a name similar to that of a genuine medicine factory, and printed the company name on the packaging boxes of the counterfeit medicine.

The packaging and price of the counterfeit products were almost the same as the genuine ones.

The government laboratory, however, found the counterfeit medicine would cause no harm to health.

Customs officers had also cracked a case involving the sale of pomelos with forged trademark labels of a Thailand brand.

The officers seized 530 pomelos, worth about HK$10,000, in raids against three shops in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. The forged trademark labels of a Thailand brand were put on low quality pomelos, but the department believed that no syndicate was involved.

The department arrested five men and two women, aged between 24 and 52. They were on bail pending further investigation.

Time-Honoured brands

The first batch of "China Time-Honoured Brands" were released formally by the Department of Commercial Reform and Development under the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on September 29.

It involves many renowned old Chinese brands, such as Beijing's Tongrentang, Tianjin's Goubuli, and Shandong's Dezhou Braised Chicken.

Up to now, 967 enterprises have applied for the title of "China Time-Honoured Brands," and finally 434 enterprises have passed the examination and verification by related organizations and experts under MOFCOM, being the preliminary batch of "China Time-Honoured Brands."

The unveiled brand list covers six categories. Namely, grocery processing, catering and accommodation, medicine, commerce, service, and others, including many well-known and special local products throughout China.

Trademark dispute

The famous Japanese cartoon figure Ultraman is currently involved in a trademark dispute among companies in Japan, Thailand, and China. Its Japanese producer, Tsuburaya Productions, claimed that over half of Ultraman products in China are pirated, and has sued around 10 companies for illegally producing and selling Ultraman merchandise.

One case that happened recently was in Hangzhou during the World Leisure Expo. Tsuburaya Productions found that during the expo a Chinese company used the pirated ultraman merchandise to make a live show, named Ultraman World Tour.

IPR forum

A Europe-China conference on Intellectual Property in digital media, a forum on IPR and digital media, will be held in Shanghai from October 18 to 20.

The forum is mainly focused on a variety of new technologies, solutions, business models, now available or in development.

At the forum many Chinese and international experts, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs and businessmen will discuss the role of Intellectual Property in the Digital Media Value Chain and the best way to enhance and monetize their value.

Medical book mansion

Medical book authors and publishers will soon enjoy a better platform for copyright trade in Beijing as a 28-storey World Medical Book Mansion is erected in downtown Beijing near the Longtan Lake Park.

The new building, with an estimated cost of more than 600 million yuan (US$75 million) and a floor area of 80,000 square metres, is designed to provide working offices for world medical book publishers and exhibition halls for related copyright exchanges.

People's Medical Publishing House, the leading publisher of medical books in China, is in charge of the construction and operation of the building. The construction is scheduled to be finished in mid-2008.

(China Daily 10/16/2006 page9)
 
 

2013-07-17