Li Keqiang, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, has recently confirmed the wish of the Chinese authorities and jurisdictions to adopt stricter measures for protection of intellectual property rights.
http://english.sipo.gov.cn/news/officialinformation/1132268.htm
Indeed the CTMO (Chinese Trademark Office Office) has refused more than 16 000 trademark applications based on the grounds that there is no intent of actual use for such preemptive applications which are filed for improper profits by trademark squatters.
Accordingly the risk of refusal for a new trademark application in China based on prior similar or identical preemptive trademarks should considerably be reduced in the future. The case being, such a refusal should also be more easily overcome by filing an invalidation action against the cited preemptive trademarks.
Unofficial sources have already mentioned that the average success rate of invalidation cases has raised up to 60%, which represents an encouraging signal for foreign investors and should hopefully prevent Chinese trademark squatting in the future.
Active since decades in China, Office Freylinger has often been successful in China against counterfeiters and trademark squatters in the past.
Thanks to this positive attitude of the Chinese authorities, we will keep on protecting and enforcing our client’s rights more easily in China.
Feel free to contact us should you have any questions regarding IP protection in China or Asia.
Nathalie Cailteux