EUIPO’s TMview database expands to Chinese market
The People’s Republic of China has joined TMview, the EU Intellectual Property Office’s free trademark design search engine, adding 32 million marks owned by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) to the database.
The EUIPO announced the development yesterday, May 19, which will see the total number of trademarks in the search tool grow from 62 million to more than 90 million from 75 participating IP offices worldwide.
TMview is a free tool used by the IP community to search for trademarks and allows businesses and IP practitioners to consult details such as countries of origin, goods and/or services, type and registration date.
The EUIPO is the first IP office with which the CNIPA has shared its trademark data, and follows the signing of the Agreement on Exchange of IP information by the parties in September 2020.
According to the EUIPO, “intense technical cooperation between the EU and China IP offices made the launch possible”.
CNIPA commissioner Shen Changyu and EUIPO executive director Christian Archambeau held a virtual meeting to celebrate the inclusion of Chinese trademarks into TMview.
Commenting on the announcement, Archambeau said: “The go-live of Chinese trademark data in the TMview database is a tribute to the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Europe in general, and more specifically between the CNIPA and the EUIPO.
“This is a welcome step forward in the efficiency and transparency of the global trademark system since about 32 million Chinese trademarks are now accessible for a free, multilingual search via the internet. This will help Chinese and European businesses, of all sizes, including the small and medium-sized enterprises which are increasingly tackling global markets.”
According to the EUIPO, the development has been made possible thanks to the support of IP Key China, an EU-funded project that promotes IP rights in China and cooperates with local authorities.
To celebrate the addition of China’s trademarks, the EUIPO released a video.
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