OPERATIC OPULENCE PHOTO BY ZHANG YANLIN / FOR CHINA DAILY On Sept 1 in Bozhou, Anhui province, actors performed at a competition in erjiaxian, a rare type of Chinese opera originating in the border areas of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui provinces some 200 years ago.self storage It is now listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.Time limits in the new law provide a legal basis to build an ei cient trade- mark registration mechanism.”LI SHUNDE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROFESSOR, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Foreign enterprises should be con- ? dent in the fairness of trademark protection in the Chinese market.”XU RUIBIAO, DIRECTOR, TRADEMARK OFFICE STATE ADMINISTRATION FOR INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE By ZHANG ZHAO zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn After three reviews over the past two years, a revised Trademark Law was approved last week by China’s top legis- lative body. It will take ef ect on May 1 next year.h e new law will better serve to “crack down on infringe- ments and ensure a fair mar- ket for Chinese and foreign trademark holders”, Xinhua News Agency reported.Guangming Daily quoted Wang Qing, an official with the Legal Affairs Commis- sion at the National People’sCongress Standing Commit- tee, saying the amendment embodies three key words — convenience, fairness and severity.h e revised law will for the first time set time limits on trademark application proce- dures. h e initial review peri- od should last no more than nine months. If objections are raised, examinations should be i nished in 12 months.Li Shunde, an intellectual property professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Procurato- rial Daily that registering a trademark has been “like run- ning the marathon”.h e review period currently lasts 30 months on average, but can stretch to seven or eight years, he said.“Time limits in the new law provide a legal basis to build an effici迷你倉nt trademark registration mechanism,” said Wang.The new law continues to offer protection for well- known trademarks, but the title will no longer be allowed on product packages, advertis- ing or promotions.Following its 1985 member- ship in the Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial Property, China established a well-known trademark system to protect brands.But many industry insid- ers say the process does not function as it was originally designed.Many companies now regard a well-known trade- mark as an honorary title to promote their products, pos- sibly misleading consumers.A recent comment by the Beijing News noted that a number of companies perpe- trate fraud and create disputes to apply for the status, “mak- ing the identii cation nearly lose its value”.Zhao Hu, an intellectual property rights lawyer and partner in Beijing’s EastBright Law Firm, told China Daily in an earlier interview that the identification as a well- known trademark should be “a legal process to settle disputes, which is based on factual evidence in individual cases”.h e new law will also give equal protection to foreign companies.“We have provided protec- tion for nearly all the well- known foreign brands in China,” Xu Ruibiao, director of the trademark oi ce under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, told Xinhua.“Foreign enterprises should be coni dent in the fairness of trademark protection in the Chinese market.”In addition, the new law will increase the compensa- tion ceiling for trademark infringement to 3 million yuan ($490,500), six times the current limit.h e Trademark Law was the i rst intellectual property law adopted in the New China.It was i rst issued in 1982 and has been amended three pre- vious times.According to the latest sta- tistics from the SAIC, there were 8.17 million registered trademarks in China by the end of June, the most in the world.文件倉
- Sep 06 Fri 2013 02:10
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After three reviews and twoyears, a new Trademark Law
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