International Activities
Fair Trade Committee visits Beijing and Shanghai
As its FY2013 research subject, the Fair Trade Committee inquired into the actual implementation of the law with regard to passing off under the Chinese Anti-Unfair Trade Competition Law. The committee sent a fact finding survey team to Beijing and Shanghai from March 3 to 8, 2014.
In Beijing, the team exchanged opinions with the IPR Department, JETRO Beijing. With the help of a local law firm, Linda Liu & Partners, the team members were able to visit and speak with personnel from the Beijing National Notary Office and to meet and speak with Chinese jurists specialized in the Anti-Unfair Trade Competition Law. Team members also visited the Copyright Registration Center.
The survey team then travelled to Shanghai, where they exchanged views with the IPR Department, JETRO Shanghai. A second local law firm, Watson & Band, facilitated a visit by the team members to the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce where they were able to speak with its personnel. Lastly, the team visited the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
The experts from the Beijing and Shanghai law firms that assisted our survey tour explained and answered questions about the implementation of the Anti-Unfair Trade Competition Law in China. Through these discussions, the survey team learned about a number of interesting issues, such as the measures taken against increasingly frequent instances of unfair competition activities on the Internet, how marks that are famous overseas are treated in China, and how Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Trade Competition Law - a general clause without an equivalent in Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act - is actually applied.
The survey tour also enabled us to learn about the enforcement of rights through Chinese judicial practices, which is necessary to effectively utilize the Anti-Unfair Trade Competition Law, and to understand the current notary system and copyright registration as a means of obtaining IP protection in China.
