Zhejiang: Shaoxing established trademark monitoring center

2012/04/11

Shaoxing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce set up a trademark monitoring center on April 6. 49 Chinese Well-known Trademarks in the city are covered as its first batch of members. It is said that Zhejiang Famous Trademarks and Shaoxing Notable Trademarks will also be incorporated into the center.

The center is designed to take a real-time look into the dynamic status of those marks and will send a notice to mark owners immediately when infringing activities are found. 

As a hub of private companies and trademarks, Shaoxing has owned over 41,000 living registered trademarks to date, of which more than 4,000 are registered in foreign countries and 49 are recognized as Chinese Well-known Trademarks, ranking the second among its peers in Zhejiang province. 

"Generated by hard-working enterprises, reputable trademarks are often stolen by speculators," said an official from the Adnimistration. 

Take one of those Chinese Well-known Trademarks, Grace, a famous brand for towels in China, for example, when searching Grace in the trademark database of the Administration, you can find more than 40 marks with similar brand name. "Consumers are very easily confused with those imitators. Although Grace Company is unsatisfied with this, it has no better alternative solutions but to tolerate it," said the official.

Attempting to enhance the protection and administration of well-known trademarks, the Administration establishes a linkage mechanism for well-known trademark owners to step up communication and coordination. 

In addition, the monitoring center will play a full role in tracking trademark violations and sending pre-alert warnings to enterprises. 

Furthermore, Shaoxing Brand Service Center and the Administration will also team up to combat trademark infringing activities. [Chinese version is available on shaoxing.com.cn]

(Source: IPR in China)