The Managing Partner Simon Tsi and the Partner Michael Fu of Chang Tsi & Partners won the last instance of a trademark infringement case on behalf of Michael Kors (defendant), wherein all the claims by Shantou Chenghai Jianfa Handbag Craft Factory (plaintiff) were rejected.
As COVID-19 spreads over the world, at this difficult time, we are concerned about people affected by covid-19 worldwide.
According to the No. 349 Announcement of the National Intellectual Property Administration of P. R. China, for all patents issued on or after 3 March 2020, only electronic patent certificates will be issued. Patent certificate on paper could be requested separately if needed.
To enhance the efficiency of examinations of trademark applications in China, so that trademark applications can mature to registration more quickly, the China trademark authorities have been speeding up examination procedures. By doing so, many pending cases have been concluded and the examination period has been drastically shortened. In the past, it was normal for a trademark application to be pending 3 years after its application date; today, an application can be approved for preliminary registration in around 6 months.
In 2012, the Civil Procedure Law of People’s Republic of China introduced the idea of a “blacklist” of dishonest debtors (officially named the List of Dishonest Enforcees). In the following years, multiple interpretations of these procedures by the Supreme People’s Court provided guidance on how enforcement measures could be used against debtors. These measures include a prohibition of extravagant consumption, judicial custody, and criminal punishment.
OEM is short for Original Equipment Manufacturer, and refers to a business mode in which a brand holder does not directly manufacture its products but entrusts another party with the manufacture and then directly applies the trademark of its own brand on the products. A manufacturer who undertakes such work is called an OEM, and its products OEM products.
As stipulated in Article 26.4 of the Chinese Patent Law, the claims shall be supported by the description and shall define the extent of the patent protection sought for in a clear and concise manner.
Infringers in China are getting bolder. Recently, we have been made aware of third party registrations of package designs used to hold brand owners and their products ransom.
In China, difficulties in enforcement of court judgments has been an outstanding problem for years. Specifically, a legally effective judgment cannot be enforced in a timely and effective manner, which may be attributed to many factors, such as unsound systems of property registration and social credit, low penalties of non-compliance, limited enforcement measures by the court, incomplete mechanisms of enforcement procedures between various administrations and the court. Accordingly, judgment debtors may intentionally escape from enforcement or even violently resist.
The competitive factors of kitchen and bath products lie in the excellence of product performance, the maturity of production technology and aesthetic value of product design.
Trademark infringement is not a brand new topic to discuss. Article 57 of the Chinese Trademark Law lists several kinds of trademark infringement. We have seen numerous actions of copying trademarks or using similar marks to mislead the consumers. The infringers do not need a thorough plan to conduct these basic types of infringement, and the cost is low.
The State Council Information Office held a press conference at the State Council Information Office on pril 24, 2018. Changyu Shen, Director of the State Intellectual Property Office, gave a speech about the development of intellectual property in China in 2017.
