On January 10, the National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC (CNIPA) released intensively 2018 annual statistics on patents, trademarks, geographical indications and integrated circuit layout designs. The data shows that in the past year, the number of trademark registration applications in China has reached 7.371 million, and the number of trademark registrations has reached 5.007 million, including 4.797 million trademarks registered in China. The huge number of trademark applications and registrations has not only effectively boosted people's confidence in the development of China's market economy, but also caused some people to worry about trademark "overstatement". In view of the increasingly fierce disorder of malicious registration in the domestic market, the judicial, administrative departments and enterprises have done a lot of works in recent years as well as have achieved certain results, but they still can not suppress the further development of abusive trademark registration disorder from the source.

 

In view of this, the 9th China IP International Annual Forum and 2019 Annual Conference of In-House IP Managers in China specifically set up the panel I with the theme of "Legislative Confirmation of Malicious Registration and Malicious Litigation form Administration to Judi c i a l Practice", invited guests from judiciary, academia and business to conduct in-depth exchanges and discussions on confirmation and suppression of trademark malicious registration and malicious litigation. The panel was presided over Qiao Rongde, Senior Partner of Lusheng Law Firm. Tom Duke, IP Attaché to China& Hong Kong of UK IPO, Amanda Yang, Lusheng Executive and Rui Songyan, Judge of Beijing Intellectual Property Court, delivered their keynote speeches respectively. Cheng Wenjuan, Chief Judge of Civil Adjudication Tribunal No.4 (IPR Division), Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, Alex Liu, Chief Inspector of IP Rights in China of BAYER, Miriam Yang, Lusheng Lawyer, and Fan Junwei, senior expert on intellectual property rights of Alibaba, participated in the panel discussion.

 

Qiao Rongde in his opening speech pointed out that there is still a separation between moral judgment and legal judgment in the identification of abusive trademark registration in China, and summarized the progress of domestic judicial practice in this respect in recent years.

 

In the keynote speech, Tom Duke made a speech on the theme of "Approaches to bad-faith trade mark applications in the UK and China", and put forward some constructive suggestions on the issue of abusive trademark registration in China based on British practice. Based on a research report issued by Lusheng Law Firm on trademark applications and registrations in China, Amanda Yang deeply analyzed the change tendency, influencing factors and category distribution of the trademarks applications and registrations in China, discussed the causes and characteristics of abusive trademark applications in the current Chinese market. Considering the case of Andis, a famous American pet goods manufacturer, represented by LuSheng Law Firm that their trademark “Andis” has been squatted by a Chinese company , Qiao Rongde made an analysis of the criteria for the recognition of "malicious squatting" by the Supreme people's Court and the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Judge Rui Songyan made a speech with the theme of "Consideration of Malicious Factors in Juridical Practice" and introduced the changing trend in case trial of malicious squatting and malicious litigation in recent years.

 

Subsequently, in the collective discussion session, Liu Hongqiang, Yang Min, Fan Junwei, and Cheng Wenjuan, from the views of enterprises, law firms, e-commerce platforms, courts, and etc., discussed the first case in China in which the obligee took advantage of the Antiunfair Competition Law to crack down on a malicious squatter and to obtain compensation: Bayer AG vs. Li Qing

 

The forum has achieved a good response on the spot, and has certain guiding significance for administrative and judicial practice of malicious registration and malicious litigation in the future in China.