Working Together on Chinese Trademark Issues
Blog by Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos
Many IP issues in China receive high-profile attention in the media. However, quiet efforts by both countries’ leaders to develop and promote a long-range shared vision do not as a rule make the news. A good example is USPTO’s work with the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), a model of successful, sustained technical cooperation. The USPTO has worked closely and intensively for several years with these offices, exchanging best practices and candidly discussing challenges. This engagement, in turn, has led to several positive developments.
For example, USPTO collaborated with and supported CTMO’s effort to increase transparency through projects such as creating an online English-language trademark registration to assist companies conducting preliminary searches, as well as publishing for an English-speaking audience its research reports on the protection of foreign well-known marks. Thanks to these two efforts, U.S. companies can now conduct easy, no-cost preliminary trademark searches in English, and they can gain a better understanding of the way China protects well-known marks.
USPTO has also exchanged best practices with CTMO and TRAB examiners in substantive areas of examination, such as sound and single color mark examination, by both providing training and Chinese translations of sections of the USPTO Trademark Manual of Examination Procedure for reference by CTMO examiners. USPTO, CTMO, and TRAB have held exchanges on trademark administration and IT issues over the years, and during that time the CTMO has drastically reduced its pendency.
Another notable area of cooperation has been on the topic of bad faith filings, also referred to as “trademark squatting”—the practice of a party intentionally filing for another party’s trademark. In 2010, the USPTO joined together with the Japan Patent Office (JPO), The Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (the European Union’s Trademark Office), and the CTMO to launch a series of technical seminars in Beijing on that issue, intended to identify useful features of national trademark systems that can be implemented as best practices in other countries.
Following the collaborative seminars, we were pleased to see that China’s Supreme People’s Court newspaper recently highlighted the results of its study on bad faith filing issued in December by the Beijing Number 1 Intermediate People’s Court. The study counseled courts to deter squatting activities when they interpret and apply the law, as well as to admit evidence with the goal of prohibiting this activity. In conjunction with this report, the court issued judgments in six cases against trademark squatters, sending a message about the importance of honest trading.
We have also followed the issue of bad faith filing as China’s legislative branch tackles the problem. On December 31st, China’s National People’s Congress published a draft of China’s proposed new trademark law for review and comment. One of China’s goals in revising its trademark law is to address the issue of bad faith trademark filing. We will continue to work together with China on this issue.
The Chinese have a saying that the longest journey begins with the first step. We believe the steps the U.S. and China have taken together have improved the IP system for all.
Posted at 09:19AM Jan 30, 2013 in trademarks | Comments[1]
Posted by Chris Zhang on January 30, 2013 at 12:50 PM EST #