On the morning of July 11, 2005, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, inviting Mr. Li Dongsheng, Vice Minister of State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to make an introduction to the protection on foreign registered trademarks in China and reply to the questions raised by Chinese and foreign journalists.

At the press conference, Mr. Li stressed that since the reform and opening up to the outside world, China has gradually established the Double-Track Protection Mode of parallel trademark protection by Administrative Authorities for Industry and Commerce (AIC) and Judicial Authorities, which is of distinct Chinese characteristics. Through the mode, the party concerned enjoys the right to sue to the court, or the right to complain to the AICs requesting for enforcement. The AICs not only have the power to investigate and deal with the trademark infringement cases at the request of the party concerned, but also enjoys the power to deal with trademark cases at the report of anybody, or investigate infringement cases ex officio. The AICs also enforce the Anti-unfair Competition Law promulgated in 1993, which provided additional protection to trademark and other IPRs. In the past twenty years, the AICs at all levels across the country fully took advantage of the trademark enforcement mechanism which enjoyed the reputation of complete network, simple procedure and high efficiency, investigated and dealt with a large number of trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, effectively safeguarded the legitimate interests and rights of the trademark registrants from home and abroad, and protected the interests and rights of the consumers. Only from 2001 to the end of June, 2005, the AICs at all levels dealt with 131,000 trademark infringement and counterfeit cases, among which 14,000 were foreign related, 362 cases which involved 388 persons suspected for criminal liabilities were transferred to judicial authorities.

Mr. Li Dongsheng emphasized that trademark registrants, no matter domestic or foreign, are treated equally without discrimination in our protection of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark. According to the Trademark Law, any trademark registered at the Trademark Office under State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) shall enjoy the protection by law and the registrant shall enjoy the exclusive right to use it. Whether the registrant comes from China or abroad, he or she enjoys the same rights and the same protection. The protection afforded to the interests and rights of the trademark registrants from home and abroad, not only promoted the development of China’s economy and the prosperity of China’s trademark cause, but also attracted a great number of foreign trademarks to get registered in China. In 1983, the annual applications for trademark registration were less than 20,000, among which those from abroad were only 1,687, while the number of applications in 2004 rocketed to 588,000, and the applications from abroad exceeded 60,000. China’s annual trademark applications for registration have been in the lead in the world for three consecutive years. By the end of 1983, the accumulative number of registered trademarks in China had added up to over 90,000, among which the trademarks registered by foreign enterprises in China were only a bit over 10,000, coming from 20 countries and regions. By the end of June 2005, China’s accumulative number of registered trademark had reached 2,370,000, among which 422,000 were registered by foreign enterprises, coming from 129 countries and regions. The remarkable increase of China’s applications for trademark registrations and trademark registrations by foreign enterprises shows that the trademark legal system in China is comprehensive and reliable, China’s protection to the exclusive right to use registered trademarks is effective and the foreign businesses to China’s market environment are confident.

Mr. Li also pointed out that during the Special Campaign, AICs at all levels across the country attached great importance to the protection of well-known trademarks according to law. From 2004 to June 2005, Trademark Office under SAIC and Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) under SAIC determined 30 foreign well-known trademarks of 9 countries and regions in the procedure of trademark oppositions, trademark administration and trademark disputes. Among the 30 well-known trademarks, 13 are from America, 5 from France, 3 from Holland, 2 from UK, 2 from Switzerland, 2 from Japan, 1 from Germany, 1 from Italy and 1 from British Virgin Islands.

At the end of the speech, Mr. Li stressed that protection of the exclusive right to use registered trademarks is necessary to encourage innovation, to develop self-owned brands and to increase the competitive power of the domestic industry, and is China’s own need to develop its own economy. In the future, AICs at all levels across the country will continue as always to focus on the protection of the exclusive right to use registered trademarks, to further build up trademark enforcement capacity, to further push on the Special Campaign of protecting the exclusive right to use registered trademarks, to effectively protect the legitimate interests and rights of the trademark owners form home and abroad, to strive hard to create a fair competition market environment and a public-satisfied consumption environment, so as to make new contributions to the harmonious development of China’s economic society.

The press conference was hosted by Mr. Yangyang of the State Council Information Office, and Mr. An Qinghu, Director General of China Trademark Office under SAIC, and Mr. Houlin, Director General of Trademark Review and Adjudication Board under SAIC also attended the press conference.