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6 May 2015Trademarks

INTA 2015: ‘Complaining won’t help anything’, Chinese judge warns

A Chinese judge has urged trademark applicants to follow the rules in China closely and not complain about unfavourable decisions.

Addressing the audience in Chinese at the International Trademark Association annual conference in San Diego today (Wednesday), Judge Wang Yanfang of the Supreme People’s Court IP Tribunal was speaking about ‘not so famous trademarks”.

Although not a legal concept in China, the term refers, for example, to trademarks that are famous in one country but have only recently been introduced to China and do not yet have strong name recognition.

Speaking via an interpreter, she said companies looking to do business in China should “abide by Chinese law”, adding that: “You have to follow Chinese law if you want trademark protection.”

Wang said that if a company does not have a trademark registration but already uses the name and wants to protect the prior rights, it should show all evidence of use.

She said she hears “so many” complaints about decisions related to alleged trademark hijacking, but if parties have followed the rules, “you will not end up losing the case”.

“Complaining won’t help anything,” she added, prompting laughter from the audience.

Karen Law, senior legal counsel at e-commerce company Alibaba Group, then explained that neither Alibaba nor Taobao, two of the company’s best known brands, are recognised as well-known trademarks in China.

Because of the first-to-file system, she said, Alibaba files applications as soon as practicable, usually when a product is created and before its launch.

Alibaba, which files applications for both actual and defensive use, targets different classes and tries to ensure broad protection, she said.

The annual conference finishes today.

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