IS CHINA SERIOUS ABOUT IP RIGHTS?
A question that is often asked and hard to answer. In short, progress is being made. For example, Starbucks won a landmark trademark case against Xingbake (Chinese for “Starbucks”) around this time of last year. A few days later, the Xiangyang market in Shanghai and the infamous Silk Market in Beijing were both closed by local government officials. The closings were considered by many to be an important, if not a somewhat symbolic, step towards fighting trademark and copyright infringement.
Arguably more important, later in the year a trademark infringement verdict against the company who manages the Silk Market was returned for Gucci, Chanel, Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton. Similar suits have been filed and are pending. Moreover, at the end of 2006, Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld the validity of Pfizer’s “Viagra” patent and also ordered the two companies to pay damages for trademark infringement (in China, “Viagra” is known as “weige” or “great brother”).
We here at Maier & Maier, PLLC welcome the progress being made in effectively enforcing IP rights in China. On that note, I was particularly struck by comments I read some time last year by Chinese Chief Justice Jiang Zhipei of the Intellectual Property Rights Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court. A staunch supporter of intellectual property rights in China who runs the website www.chinaiprlaw.com. For instance, he has stated that ninety percent of IP infringement cases brought by foreign companies in China are successful, but the available proceedings are underutilized.
As a result, intellectual property, particularly, patent protection is increasingly valuable. The first step companies must take is to register their IP. Next, companies must be vigilant in collecting and documenting evidence of IP infringement because Chinese courts have strict procedures for correctly gathering such evidence. We are interested in your thoughts on pursuing and enforcing IP rights in China.
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