Apple and Proview court controversy

Names cause friction

The China Trademark Office handled a record-breaking 1.07 million applications in 2010, the most reported anywhere in the world for the ninth consecutive year.

Yet, market analysts say the country should start to focus more on quality rather than quantity.

The number of world-famous brands originating in China is relatively small compared with the number of registered trademarks. In addition, experts say there are many mala fide applications, those made by individuals or companies who have no intention of using the trademark, which is disrupting the market.

There are hundreds of websites that offer customers the chance to register trademarks in China, the trade of which has become a business in itself.

"The function of a trademark is to give credit to a brand and help consumers to choose from different products on the market," said Liu Chuntian, an expert in intellectual property rights at Renmin University of China. "However, the buying and selling of trademarks has become an industrial chain. It's ridiculous."

Although the iPad dispute has caused concern among foreign companies about the use of their trademarks in China, some have attempted to prepare in advance.

Facebook, which is contemplating re-entering the Chinese market, according to media reports, began registering trademarks in China in 2006. So far, it has filed 61 applications for its English name and various Chinese translations, data from the China Trademark Office show.

Yet, intellectual property consultancy East IP, which was hired by the US social-network company to handle its trademark issues, told Reuters that it has found myriad variations on the Facebook name registered in China.

An executive was quoted as saying the firm is gathering evidence in the hope of reclaiming the trademark rights to the Facebook brand.

For foreign companies entering the Chinese market, registering English and Mandarin variations is essential, say lawyers.

Until recently, Sony Ericsson, one the world's largest cell phone producers, was embroiled in a legal battle with a digital company in Guangzhou that was selling products under the name Suo Ai, a widely used abbreviation of the multinational's Chinese name, Suo Ni Ai Li Xin.

Representatives of Sony Ericsson argued that most Chinese shoppers, when they heard the words "Suo Ai", would think of Sony Ericsson, not the Guangzhou brand.

A lawsuit was filed in 2007. However, judges in Beijing eventually ruled in favor of allowing the Guangzhou company to continue using the brand name, as it had been registered in China in 2004.

Han Ziwen, a proud Apple customer, displays his newly purchased iPads outside the US tech firm's flagship store in Beijing on Sept 17, 2010. Like many others, Han had lined up outside the store for 60 hours to be one of the first to buy an iPad in China. However, the product could be pulled from the shelves if Apple loses its trademark dispute with Shenzhen Proview Technology. [Photo/Agencies]