China Ip news
China IP footnotes 2009
* “China moved from the seventh largest in 2007 to sixth in 2008 in terms of the number of international patent applications”, said a Chinese intellectual property official.
* The United States, Japan, Germany, Republic of Korea and France took the first five places in the rating. China overtook Britain to be in sixth position. Based on present trends, China’s economy will exceed the US by 2035 or earlier.
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* In 2008, China filed 6,089 patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), up 11.9 percent over the previous year. The PCT is an international pact that enables patent protection of an invention in each of a large number of its contracting states. Applicants can file an "international" patent application to their own country's patent office or the WIPO international bureau. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 139 states signed the treaty so far.
* It is noted that Chinese companies filed the most applications among companies from all PCT contracting states for the first time.
* Enterprises also played an active role in domestic patent applications. Half of the 194,000 patent applications for inventions were handed in by enterprises last year.
* About 40,500 enterprises submitted patent applications last year, up 23.9 percent over 2007.
* However, only two large enterprises, Huawei (1737 PCT filings) and ZTE Corporation, were in the top 100 PCT applicant companies and together contributed to one third of the country’s PCT filings. Another company, Haier, files two patents a day.
* Under consideration is SIPO and Ministry of Finance plans to provide financial assistance to domestic companies who want to file PCT patent applications,
* These data were culled from China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO)
China IP updates Figures just came in showed that for the year 2008, there were over 700,000 applications for trademarks in China. It is the world’s largest number of applications and China has consistently leaded in the world for seven consecutive years. The data are culled from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) which had an Inter-Regional High-Level Forum in Beijing recently.
China also received over 17,000 trademark applications under the Madrid system for international application. This figure also put China leading in this category, and to date, there have been a total of over 130,000 applications. There has also been an increase of foreign entry in trademark registrations in China which had an accumulated 531,000 application as at end of 2008. Compared to thirty years ago, this is a one hundred fold increase.
From the data, one would infer that there has been a great interest in doing business in China, but the reality is that foreign filing of trademarks in China is intended to stump the act of trademark high jacking by Chinese business that have very little respect for protecting the rights of foreign intangible assets. It is becoming a good business sense that if you have a trademark, you should file for registration early in China before it is registered by someone else and become locked out from the China market!
Two can play the Game
In a twist of events, Chinese companies are finding it very difficult to expand to other countries as there has been a spate of trademark registrations in foreign countries by unknown individuals with the intent to prevent the chinese companies from setting up shop there or even to re-sell those trademarks back to the original trademark holder for a fee! Big names in China like Sohu, China Minmetals and China Industrial Corporation have their trademarks registered by third parties in countries like Canada and Europe. In an attempt to prevent more Chinese rademarks from being high-jacked, the Chinese government has asked Chinese companies to file their trademarks in major foreign trading countries before others do so. It just shows that if you live in houses with large glass windows, don't go and throw stones at other people's houses windows! Two can play the game, in the global market.
China is moving its money into strategic assets of other countries. There are objections. But is it really that vital to China?
In an effort to shore up its manufacturing prowess, China has been eyeing interest in buying over mining, energy, information and auto assets of other countries. A recent case in point was the biding to buy over Opel, an arm of ailing GM of America. Previously, Huawei Technologies and Bain Capital proposed in a joint effort to buy US network-equipment operation 3Com. Unfortunately, the exercise did not succeed due mainly to the objection by the US Congress and the Committee on Foreign Investment. They reasoned that 3Com is just too strategic a company to fall to the Chinese, sitting several important patents that the company holds.
As a major manufacturing base to the world, China has always felt vulnerable due to the need to source for raw materials. It has gone to all four corners of the earth to buy up raw materials, mostly at high prices that have eaten into its manufacturing profits. One glaring example was the time during the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the prices of oil, iron ore, and foodstuffs shot to the roof! More recently, Chinalco, a big Chinese buyer of metals was in the news as it tried to buy into mining giant Rio Tinto (RTP), but was again rebuffed by the Australian Government. It seems that when a giant comes knocking at your door, it is your neighbors that get frightened off! Perhaps China should change its strategy of going after distressed companies after these companies have already announced their problems. They should build up their repot and strengthen their ties with strategic companies instead, and offered financial help to these companies. When these companies bite the baits, China can then offer to buy them up, without causing any suspicions and triggering unnecessary alarms!
July 8, 2009
Trademark ‘012’ strikes it rich
A man in Guizhou Province in south western China thought it would be a great brand when he registered ‘012’ as a trademark. But why ‘102’? Well, it is the calling code for Shanghai! Just that, but he has been registering trademarks and later selling it at auctions to make a living. But he is lucky this time around as his ‘012’ trademark is reputed to be worth $USD 12 million dollars! He got another one for Beijing as well. The only thing is who is going to buy from him. One thing for sure, in prosperous China (there are a reputed 140 billion airs as of 2009), anything goes!
October 15, 2009.
China is seriously cowing Taiwan
It was a decade ago when many Taiwanese firms invested in factories in China to make products to supply to the world market. Then, it was common for these firms to also register their trademarks in China just so that no one over the mainland do a counterfeit of their products. However, the situation is now changed. Instead of Taiwanese registering their brand names in China, it is the Chinese that are registering their trade names in Taiwan now. Incidentally, the number of Taiwanese filing for trademarks in their own country has showed a deep decline. Taiwanese firms are still filing trademarks in China, but at a slower rate than a decade ago. Figures coming out of the Taiwanese Patent office showed that Chinese companies filing for trademarks in Taiwan will exceed 1000 for 2009. The trend is expected to continue for the rest of the decade, even though the Chinese investments in Taiwan are at a trickle.
October 21, 2009.
Trademarks revoked!
According to sources, there are at present 63,000 trademarks of Taiwanese companies in China, but there are still a large number of trademark filings that are not yet approved, due perhaps to the problem of Chinese companies and individuals that are filing Taiwanese names and renowned trademarks as a first move initiative to profit in China. It seems that not only Taiwanese companies are loosing, but also companies from other regions are also having difficulties registering their renowned trademarks in China. However, in a damage control exercise, China’s spokeswomen for Taiwan Affairs Office said that the authorities have revoked a number of trademarks filings by Chinese companies that are evidently trying to steal the trade names from others. Some of these famous names include ‘Alishan’ and ‘Gukeng Coffee’ as well as other geographical regional indicators that are of Taiwanese origins. Along the way, the Chinese authorities have also granted eight ‘well known status’ Taiwanese trademarks like ‘Giant’ and ‘Benq’. However, it is not known whether what actions are taken against such free loaders, if any. It is a known fact that many foreign companies are facing problems registering their well known trademarks in China.
October 30, 2009.
Money for your IPs.
In a first of its kind in China, a group of six lenders have started launching a pilot project in the city of Guangzhou to assist companies to use their intellectual properties to act as collaterals for loans. Big lenders including Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank have signed an agreement for the project. The amount to be financed will come to about $US 180 million for about eighteen companies. Not to be sidelined, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) will also promote similar services in other areas like Shanghai and Beijing. Chinese lenders like their counterparts in other places normally will only lend if tangible assets are used as mortgages. But in an apparent exercise to shore up the value of Chinese patents, the Government has instructed that money be made available to those companies with intellectual capitals a well. It does bode well for companies to acquire IPs, not only in China, but also in other countries, where IP monetization is not well entrenched.
November 19, 2009.
China’s retreats on sensing the heat?
China has redrafted its infamous Draft 2010 due perhaps to the huge amount of protests coming all the way from the White House. It had originally required that companies who are bidding for state tenders to have the so called "indigenous innovation" before they can qualify for state procurements. Western suppliers see it as an affront to prevent them from succeeding in tenders. In a surprise move, China's Ministry of Science and Technology withdrew some of those contentious requirements, but only slightly to assuage the many protestations from far and wide. The new washed down requirement states that bidders need only have their intellectual property dully registered in China, and not the original requirement where bidders have to show that at least one of the inventor is a Chinese and the IP to be registered in China first. But still, it is early days as we would have to see what actually happens and whether the condition is to be taken at face value or not.
April 19, 2010.
China rising star in IP registration
China has experienced one of the highest growth rates in registration of intellectual properties since 1985. IP registration grew by 18 % for 2009 and there is also a bigger awareness among the trading communities about the value of intangible assets like patents and trademarks. With the coming in of the China ASEAN FTA, there is an added urgency to streamline the intellectual property laws on both sides. Negotiations on IP matters started in 2001 and it is still an on going affair. In a recent session, Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), indicated that IP matters are crucial to an investment-friendly environment. He also wants to see more communication on such matters. Presently, Asean and China is both their fourth largest trading partner and will increase in importance as the year goes and a with a good IP platform, trading will be enhanced.
April 23, 2010
"Indigenous Innovation" requirement of China partially removed
For the past eight months or so, American businesses that bid for Chinese tenders were disturbed by the new requirements put by the Chinese authorities. The new conditions includes American tie up with indigenous Chinese firms on intellectual properties before they are allowed to bid for state tenders. It was a sneak way of telling American businesses that they have to share their intellectual property rights with a Chinese entity if they were to be given state tenders. China called it “indigenous innovations” and foreign businesses have been roiled by the barrier. During a visit to Washington early in the year, Chinese President HU said that his government will not discriminate against products made with foreign technologies. Seeing the amount of protest against the ruling, China recently announced the withdrawal of part of the conditions and she have assured businesses that they could continue to bid for tenders that would amount to a trillion dollars a year.
July 3, 2011