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Chinese companies are filing record number of IP applications and enforcing their rights through an increasingly sophisticated legal system. Gary Zhang, Xiang An, Jinhua Lu and Guangliang Zhang of China Sinda explain why 2009 was a watershed year for IP in the country

Peter Ollier talks to Lu Guoqiang about his work as director-general of the Shanghai IP Administration and how local and national authorities are cooperating to protect IP during the World Expo

Jack Chang explains what the Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) has done to fight fakes and improve IP enforcement in China and outlines the challenges ahead

It has been a mixed 12 months for IP owners in China. Progress has been made in a number of areas such as the successful introduction of the Patent Law amendments and implementing regulations, but some moves by the government on national standards and indigenous innovation have raised fears that foreign IP owners will face discrimination.

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam – who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449

My marketing colleagues want us to add logos to our product to show that we use fair traded, organic, ethically-sourced ingredients. What do I need to know about using these kinds of marks?

In late 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai issued a stern announcement (Announcement 323) exhorting relevant agencies to step up the fight against counterfeit and smuggled goods in Vietnam. Announcement 323 acknowledges the improvements in IP enforcement in recent years, but notes that the results do not meet requirements and that, in the future, anti-counterfeiting and anti-smuggling actions by the authorities must be strengthened to protect the health of the people and prevent a negative influence on the investment environment. In particular, Announcement 323 notes that more resources and reforms are needed to shore up weaknesses in preventing smuggling and inferior goods from entering through the border points into Vietnam.

When the USPTO issues a refusal to register a trade mark application based upon a likelihood of confusion with an existing third party registration covering a similar mark, one option that the owner of the refused application has available to it is to approach the owner of the cited registration to obtain a Consent to Registration. A Consent to Registration is essentially a written acknowledgement by the owner of a trade mark registration, which can be submitted to the PTO, attesting that there is no likelihood of confusion between the mark that is the subject of the existing registration and the mark that is the subject of the pending application.

The James Bond series of movies have enjoyed worldwide recognition all over the world for many years. However, the 007 trade marks were not given famous mark status in Taiwan when they were used to oppose registration of a local trade mark comprising the same wording 007 and a similar pistol device in respect of timepieces in the year 2000. The Administrative Court then had the following findings:

With a significantly higher level of regulation over trade mark licences introduced by the 2007 trade mark law, we might have expected to see an increase in the number of licence recordals, but that is not apparent from the number of licences published in the official journal.