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JIPA 2013 China Delegation Visits Dalian & Beijing
From June 14 to 19, 2013, JIPA’s Asia project delegation led by Kenichi Osonoe (vice president) visited Dalian and Beijing in China.
The purposes of the visit were to:
1. Exchange opinions with representatives from the Division of Personnel Allocation (Department of Personnel, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and the Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC)).
2. Exchange opinions with representatives from the IP Group (IPG), comprised of Japanese companies in China, regarding proposals to be presented to the Chinese government this year.
3. Gather information from representatives from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) regarding the recent policies of governmental agencies in China.
4. Exchange opinions with Dr. Li Mingde of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In Dalian, the representatives from JIPA had a meeting to exchange opinions among Mr. Furuse (Director-general of JPO), Mr. Takahashi (Assistant to the Director), and IPG members.
Mr. Furuse expressed the opinion that as JPO and the Trademark Office of China keep contact with each other via their examiners, requests from Japanese companies should be conveyed to the Chinese authorities via the examiners to encourage improvements. In connection with this opinion, Japanese companies’ members pointed out particular problems in the Chinese trademark system.
In the opinion exchange meeting with AIC, 4 Japanese companies respectively reported cases in which their trademarks had been plagiarized in China. AIC presented opinions on what measures could be taken in those cases.
In the next agenda item, a representative from the Office for IPR Infringement (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan) presented patterns of recommitment of IPR infringement and asked for opinions from AIC. The response from AIC was generally positive as the proposal currently being deliberated for revising the Chinese trademark law includes a clause stipulating severe punishment for a party that re-commits a trademark infringement within 5 years from the previous infringement. Moreover, a representative from SAIC stated that they should define patterns of re-commitment of a trademark infringement in a sub-regulation of their trademark law.
In Beijing, opinions were exchanged with the Chinese IPG regarding proposals for the IIPPF operation-level mission. JIPA's proposals were developed based on the responses of IIPPF member companies to a questionnaire. JIPA explained the proposals and IPG presented a request that reflected anti-counterfeit measures taken by individual companies in China.
Dr. Li Mingde from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is involved in almost all of the revisions to Chinese IP related laws. He explained the improvements made, and problems remaining in the revised trademark law, the revised copyrights law and the revised patent law.
The delegation's visit to China lasted for only a few days, but they had a number of meaningful meetings with Chinese authorities, experts, and IPG to exchange opinions and gather information.
[Update 2013-07-25 ]
