At the 16th Annual Conference of the Brand Protection Federation of Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, the head of the Legal Affairs Department of Japanese Sanrio Co., Ltd. smiled upon the IPR protection environment of Yiwu market and the vital role of the Brand Protection Federation played in dealing with cases. He said, “Since nine years ago when our company joined the Federation, the market supervisors of Yiwu City timely dealt with our complaints and effectively ended several cases infringing our trademark to Hello kitty, which safeguarded the rights and interests of consumers and meanwhile protected us.” He hoped “to enhance cooperation and exchange with the Federation” and wished a more successful future of IPR protection.

The Brand Protection Federation of Yiwu was set up in 1995 and at that time there were merely 40 or more members and 63 protected brands. But now the federation owns 132 enterprise members and protects 210 brands, involving famous businesses from the United States, Japan, Korea, France, England and Italy. In the past 16 years, member enterprises well cooperated with enforcement organs to deal with 5,348 cases, involving 101 million yuan.

In 2010, with the cooperation of the federation, the industry and commerce entities dealt with 395 cases infringing the brands of member companies and 86 brands involved.

(Source:IPR in China)