III. Trademark Protection
Great progress has been made in China's trademark protection work since
November 1, 1979, when China resumed the unified registration of trademarks. The
"Trademark Law" went into effect on March 1, 1983. The Chinese government
promulgated the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" in March
1983 to help with the implementation of the law, and in 1988 revised it for the
first time. In February 1993, the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC) made the first revision to the "Trademark Law" to include service
trademarks in the work of trademark protection, strengthen efforts to crack down
on trademark infringement and counterfeiting, and improve the trademark
registration procedures. In July 1993, the Chinese government made revisions to
the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" for the second time to
bring collective trademarks and certification trademarks into the scope of legal
protection of trademarks, and added to it provisions on the protection of
"trademarks well known to the public."
In October 2001, the NPC Standing Committee made revisions to the "Trademark
Law" for the second time to include three-dimensional trademarks and color
combination trademarks in the scope of trademark protection and offer greater
protection to well-known trademarks. The revised "Trademark Law" also stipulates
that the trademark system shall be used to protect geographical marks, judicial
examination shall be added for the certification process of trademark rights,
and greater efforts shall be made to crack down on trademark infringement and
counterfeiting, thus bringing the relevant provisions of China's "Trademark Law"
in line with the principles of WTO's "Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights." In August 2002, the Chinese government again
revised the "Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" and renamed it
"Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law."
In accordance with the provisions of the "Trademark Law" and the "Regulations
for the Implementation of the Trademark Law," the State Administration for
Industry and Commerce formulated or revised several administrative rules and
regulations, including the "Trademark Assessment Rules," "Provisions on the
Recognition and Protection of well-known Trademarks," "Procedures for the
Management and Registration of Collective Trademarks and Certification
Trademarks," "Procedures for the Implementation of Madrid Agreement for the
International Registration of Trademarks," and "Procedures for the
Administration of the Printing of Trademarks."
As improvements are made in the legal system concerning trademarks and as the
general public's awareness about trademarks is heightened, applications for
trademark registration in China have soared in recent years. In 1980,
applications for trademark registration were only a little more than 20,000. The
number reached 132,000 in 1993. In the five years from 2000 to 2004,
applications for trademark registration quickly exceeded the key marks of
200,000, 300,000, 400,000 and 500,000, and came to 1,906,000 finally. It means
an additional 256,000 applications were submitted in these five years over the
total submitted during the 20 years from 1980 to 1999. It accounts for 53.6
percent of the total number of applications submitted from 1980 to 2004. In
2004, 588,000 applications were filed for trademark registration, 136,000 more
than the previous year and an increase of 30 percent. The number of applications
in 2004 was 2.17 times that in 2001, when China joined the WTO. By the end of
2004, China had had 2,240,000 registered trademarks.
As the investment environment in China is constantly improved, especially
after China joined the WTO, both the number of applications for trademark
registration from foreigners and the number of registered foreign trademarks
have kept increasing. In 1982, there were 1,565 foreign applications for
trademark registration in China. The number exceeded 20,000 in 1993 and exceeded
60,000 in 2004. Before 1979, only 20 countries and regions had 5,130 trademarks
registered in China. By the end of 2004, 129 countries and regions had had
403,000 trademarks registered in China. This represents almost an 80-fold
increase over that in 1979, accounting for 18 percent of the total number of
registered trademarks in China.
China has actively fulfilled its obligations to protect internationally
well-known trademarks since it joined the "Paris Convention for the Protection
of Industrial Property." In handling cases involving objections and disputes
over ownership of trademarks as well as trademark management, the State
Administration for Industry and Commerce has certified more than 400 well-known
trademarks, effectively protecting according to law the legitimate rights and
interests of owners of foreign and Chinese well-known trademarks. In 2004 alone,
it certified and offered protection to 153 well-known trademarks, of which 28
were brand-names of foreign enterprises. Meanwhile, administrative organs of
industry and commerce at all levels regard the protection of well-known
trademarks as their priority and have made greater efforts to protect them. They
have severely cracked down on all kinds of illegal acts that have infringed upon
the rights and interests of well-known trademarks.
For years, administrative organs of industry and
commerce at all levels across China have fully exploited their advantages in
trademark administrative law enforcement - complete networks, simple procedures
and high efficiency. Focusing on the protection of the right to exclusive use of
registered trademarks, and dutifully carrying out their responsibilities, they
have investigated and dealt with a large number of trademark infringement and
counterfeiting cases, effectively protecting the right to exclusive use of
registered trademarks of both foreign and domestic trademark owners, and
safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. From 2001 to
2004, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all levels across China
dealt with 169,600 cases that violated the trademark laws and regulations. Of
these, 113,000 cases involved trademark infringement and counterfeiting (12,000
cases involved foreign trademarks), and 56,600 cases were other types of
violations of trademark laws and regulations. They confiscated and destroyed 529
million pieces (sets) of counterfeiting trademark logos, and transferred 286
cases involving 300 people to judicial organs to pursue their criminal
responsibilities. In 2004, in accordance with the unified plan and arrangement
of the State Council on IPR protection and that of the State Administration for
Industry and Commerce on the protection of the right to exclusive use of
registered trademarks, administrative organs of industry and commerce at all
levels across China launched three special campaigns that focused on the
protection of well-known and foreign-related trademarks, and on dealing with
infringements of trademarks of food and medicine. The campaigns effectively
protected the right to exclusive use of registered trademarks. According to
statistics, in 2004, administrative organs of industry and commerce across China
investigated and dealt with 51,851 law-violation cases involving trademarks. Of
these, 5,494 concerned foreign trademarks, a 2.6-fold increase of that in 2003.
Of the 51,851 cases they investigated, 11,680 were common violations of the
trademark laws and regulations. The rest of the cases, altogether 40,171,
involved trademark infringement or counterfeiting, an increase of 51.66 percent
over 2003. They confiscated and disposed of 38,951,800 pieces (sets) of illegal
trademark logos, confiscated 280,800 tools such as moulds and press plates used
for the infringement, and confiscated and destroyed 5638.53 tons of items that
had been used for the infringement. They transferred to judicial organs 96 cases
involving 82 people to pursue their criminal responsibilities.
