Growing success for IP rights in China

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

Reform of the Canadian Trademarks law

The reform of the Canadian TradeMarks Law will enter into force on June 17, 2019.

In view of the future accession of Canada to the Madrid Protocol and Nice Agreement, the changes include the use of the Nice Classification to categorize goods and services for the purposes of registering trademarks.

Clients who intend to protect their trademarks in multiple classes should file their applications before that date if they want to avoid the payment of additional fees for claiming several classes of products or services.

The reform abolishes the bases for filing a trademark application (real use or proposed use in Canada) and the requirement to file a Statement of Use in the course of the registration procedure.

Michèle Léonard

Success for LEGO’s intellectual property rights in China

The Chinese Court of Guangzhou Yuexiu District has recently sentenced four Chinese companies to pay a fine of around 570.000 EUR for unfair competition and for having infringed LEGO’s copyrights. The four defendants liable for counterfeiting LEGO’s building sets and minifigures under the LEPIN sign are ordered to immediately stop producing and marketing said infringing products.

Niels B. Christiansen, the LEGO Group’s Chief Executive Office, is pleased to welcome this Court’s decision, which should considerably reduce the temptation to unlawfully copy LEGO’s products and which might play a great part in improving the fair business environment of China.

Press release: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2018/november/lepin-case/

Nathalie Cailteux