Number of registered foreign trademarks tops 420,000

China has enhanced the protection of foreign trademarks and forcibly cracked down on illegal trademark activities, safeguarded the interests of foreign trademark owners, said Li Dongsheng, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on July 11.

China's accumulated number of registered trademarks had reached 2.37 million by the end of this June, according to the latest statistics released. Out of them, 422,000 were registered on applications from foreign-funded companies from 129 countries and regions.

This fully demonstrated China has a sound trademark legal system, China's protection of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark is effective and foreign investors have strong confidence in China's market environment, he said.

In 1983, China's annual trademark applications for registration were less than 20,000 and among which only 1,687 were foreign applications. By 2004, the number of annual applications had reached 588,000, and China has led the world for three consecutive years. Among the applications, more than 60,000 were foreign trademarks.

Of the total foreign ones, the United States, Japan and Germany ranked first, second and third in the number of trademark applications, with 13,343, 11,945 and 5,961 applications respectively.

Investigations involving infringement of foreign trademarks were in sharp increase

In 2004, the industrial and commercial administration authorities in the country dealt with 5,401 infringements on foreign trademarks, which increased 158 per cent year-on-year, according to the statistics released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on July 11. In the first half of this year, 2,451 cases were dealt with, rising by 55.8 over that period of last year.

It is introduced that China practices a double-track system of judicial and administrative protection in protecting the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, and the majority of the infringement cases have been managed by the administrative departments for industry and commerce at all levels.

In the second half of 2004, the administrative departments for industry and commerce carried out special activities concerning the protection of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, with emphasis put on safeguarding famous, foreign, food and drug trademarks.

By the end of last year, China's Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued judicial interpretation concerning applicable laws in criminal cases related to infringement upon intellectual property rights (IPR), strengthening the legal protection on intellectual property rights.

Stress placed on protecting well-known foreign trademarks

China's emphasis on protection of famous foreign trademarks has strengthened the confidence of transnational companies in China's IPR protection.

At present, China has confirmed 30 well-know foreign trademarks involving nine countries and regions. Of them, there are 13 from the United States, five from France, three from Holland, two from Britain, two from Switzerland, two from Japan, one from Germany, one from Italy and one from British Virgin Islands.

According to sources, the 30 trademarks include Triatop, Dupont, Disney, Gillette and Sprite of the United States; Lancome and Montagut of France; Philip of Holland; Nissan and YKK of Japan; Tissott of Switzerland; Boss of Germany; Ferrari of Italy and Shangri-La of British Virgin Islands.

By People's Daily Online