Unitalen Conducts Survey on China’s 500: IPR Worries

August 31, 2004
Unitalen Conducts Survey on China’s 500: IPR Worries
“China’s 500 most valuable brands” list was released in June 2004 to reveal the value and position of China’s mainland brands on the market.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law, one of the biggest intellectual property rights agencies in the country, attaches significant importance to current intellectual property affairs regarding domestic brands. With detailed planning and arrangement, and through cooperation with many foreign law firms, Unitalen conducted a survey on the international intellectual property status of the first 50 Chinese valuable brands on the list. The survey included these 50 brands’ trademark registration status in five countries (regions): Hong Kong, the USA, Australia, Canada and the European Union.

The results were far from optimistic:

For all the 50 brands, the percentage of trademarks not registered in the above countries (regions) is as high as 53.2%. Among these, 44％ are not registered in Hong Kong; 46％ in the USA; 50％ in Australia; 54％ in Canada; and 76％ in the European Union. Approximately 10％ of the brands have been registered on behalf of non-Chinese enterprises as holders.

According to type, state and collectively owned enterprises show weak concern for overseas protection of their brands, and their percentage of registration abroad is low; private enterprises possess a somewhat higher concern for intellectual property protection; hi-tech companies are traditionally the strongest; and high schools are weak in intellectual property protection. As a whole, the brands are relatively well protected domestically, but lack in overseas registration awareness.

With the most famous brands still lacking in overseas protection, not much can be said about the rest of our domestic brands.

With current internationalization of the Chinese economy, Chinese enterprises cannot but follow suit, and their “entry visa” is nothing but their own brand.

(Please visit our “Articles” for a detailed report on the Survey).

　

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