City protects more trademarks
The city’s intellectual property authority released further lists of specially protected trademarks on Thursday, including 27 from six foreign enterprises and 197 from 95 local time-honored brands.
The brands from Australia, Italy, Belgium, Japan, France and New Zealand, include candy giant Ferrero, Hello Kitty owner Sanrio and kiwifruit seller Zespri.
Shanghai Intellectual Property Bureau said the lists expand coverage to more foreign companies' trademarks to provide equal protection to the intellectual property of both domestic and overseas firms.
Copying the listed trademarks will merit tough punishment and interprovincial crackdowns on counterfeits
Gu Huirong, a bureau official, said more foreign brands were requesting such protection and the bureau will be working with e-commerce companies and use online platforms to detect counterfeit trading online. It will also be searching for counterfeits at exhibitions
The two lists of 249 trademarks cover fields that include fashion, household chemicals, food, drugs, finance, shopping, accommodation and dining.
Some trademarks related to care of the elderly were included for the first time following the city's four-year plan for such services.
"We did some investigations on the development of local elderly care service brands on the basis of the plan and included several leading brands which have a strong need for intellectual protection in the lists," said Gu. "In the future, we'll update our protection lists with more brands from different industries based on different government policies."
She said the bureau had found knock-off stores and goods in other provinces purporting to be of local time-honored brands, which made it enhance protection of these brands.
The bureau also reported on its work in improving the city's commercial environment last year.
It had connected into the local government's one-stop online platform, which raised efficiency and cut the time spent for procedures by 66 percent.
An international intellectual property operation federation had been established with members from more than 70 domestic and overseas relevant institutions.
Last year the city handled 1,779 cases related to trademark law violations, an increase of some 25 percent on 2018.
In one case, the patents of two products made by German drug manufacturer Bayer were found being infringed by a local company, which made the latter filed an application to the bureau for solution. And it only took four months for the bureau to settle this dispute and protect Bayer's intellectual property rights, which is less than a legal process.