21.01.2009
Posted in Trademarks, China, Japan at 22:51 pm by TMSJ
A new institution jointly established by the Copyright Protection Center of China (a Chinese government institution) and several Japanese companies in Tokyo will start accepting copyright registrations for China from Japanese applicants as soon as April. Making use of the possibility to register a copyrighted work helps authors to prove their authorship and to take legal actions against infringements.
The Copyright Protection Center will dispatch several Chinese lawyers to the newly established institution whose job it will be to examine and record works to ehance their protection on the Chineses market.
The institution will further handle lawsuits and mediation requests related to alleged copyright violations in China. In the future, the center will also handle the registration of trademark rights and design rights.
Currently, foreign applicants can officially register copyrighted works only in Beijing. It takes about a month on average to complete all the procedures. By using the new institution in Japan, Japanese applicants should be able to finish the whole process within two weeks.
Source
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11.12.2008
Posted in Trademarks, Courts and Cases, China at 7:45 am by TMSJ
Apple Inc. has won a trademark infringement suit against a Chinese corporation named New Apple Concept Digital Technology Co. Ltd. which used a logo confusingly similar to the US company’s symbol. The Chinese company with its registered seat in Shenzhen was ordered to pay 400,000 yuan (about 58,000 dollars) to Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. registered the trademark name Apple and the apple logo when it entered China’s market in 1993.4
Source
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25.11.2008
Posted in Trademarks, China at 8:54 am by TMSJ
The Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has notified Chinese trademark agents about a new program for the promotion of online registration procedures. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance have jointly ordered the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to reduce the fees for online trademark applications retroactively from October 1, 2008. Compared to the fee for applications filed on paper, the fee for online applications has been reduced by 20 percent.
The program is based on an original SAIC proposal. The SAIC hopes to enhance the quality and efficiency of trademark applications by promoting Internet applications. The reduced fees amount to 800 CNY for the first ten designated goods or services plus 80 CNY for each additional item (the Chinese system of trademark fees is not based on classes of goods or services, but rather on the number of designated items).
Source: Newsletter of THEMISUN
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18.11.2008
Posted in Trademarks, China at 8:53 am by TMSJ
Chinese officials reported that the Chinese Trademark Management Office has been receiving an increasing number of “Obama” trademark applications (from 16 Chinese companies so far). Some entrepreneuers had a keen sense of the results of the presidential elections in the U.S.: As early as February, a pharmaceutical company in Guangzhou filed an application for “Obama”, to be used as a trademark for iodine, surgical spirit and traditional medicine. In March a shoe manufacturer in Wenzhou filed an application for “Mei Obama” and its translation “American Obama” on belts, jackets, children’s clothes and shoes. Apparently, the company had a strong belief in the future market value of that name. It is unknown, however, how many Chinese entrepreneuers were still rooting for Hillary Clinton at that time (on June 7, Clinton ended her campaign for the presidential nomination).
Now that the election is over, the run on the trademark “Barack Obama” has only increased. Following the slogan: “Yes we can!”, various companies have been filing Obama marks for all kinds of goods, from instant noodles and coffee to clothing and wooden logs. However, the chances that the trademarks can be registered are very low since names of politicians cannot be registered as trademarks in China.
Some entreprenuers are already looking into ways of circumventing this provision: Clothes labeled “Aobama” are already in production. The name sounds like “Obama” in Chinese. Honi soit qui mal y pense!
Source
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25.09.2008
Posted in Trademarks, China, Japan at 16:42 pm by TMSJ
The registration of Japanese traditional brand names as Chinese trademarks remains a problem for Japanese companies. The Aomori case was the first widely-reported incident, but there are numerous other examples, such as Matsusaka beef and Naruto Kintoki sweet potatoes.
Another newsworthy case affects the traditional ironware company “Nanbu Tekki” of Iwate prefecture. Nanbu tekki is written in the following Chinese characters 南部鉄器 (Southern Ironware).
In September 2007, a Hong Kong based company has applied for registration of this name in China, using an old chinese character for iron (鐵). Producers of Nanbu Tekki are planning legal steps against the Chinese trademark, which seems to be registered by now.
However, considering the rather generic nature of the trademark, one should not exclude the possibility that the similarity of trademark names might rather be a coincidence than a case of taking unfair advantage of the repute of “Nanbu Tekki”.
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