On November 22, 2020, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee announced they filed a public interest lawsuit on October 26, 2020 against Shuangshan Food (Xiamen) Co., Ltd. for selling counterfeited Starbucks coffee. Shuangshan was previously subject to criminal prosecution for the sale of the counterfeit coffee amounting to 7 million RMB (~$1 million USD). This is the first consumer civil punitive damages public interest litigation in Jiangsu Province and the demand for compensation of 21 million RMB is the highest …
Category: Trademarks
China’s Blue Sky Intellectual Property Industry Rectification Campaign Shows 45% of Violations are for Trademark Squatting and Less Than Half of TM Agencies Signed a Commitment to Abide by the Law
In a notice issued November 9, 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration announced that it organized a comprehensive review of the 47,000 trademark agencies registered with CNIPA under the Blue Sky IP industry rectification campaign. Through self-examination, the top violation of trademark law and regulation by trademark agencies was the malicious squatting and hoarding of trademarks with 858 cases (44.94% of all violations); unlicensed practice of patent law 561 (29.4% of the total) was second; third, worryingly, was forging …
Beijing Fines Alibaba 100,000 RMB for Malicious Trademark Filings
The Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Administration (SAMR) recently published 京朝市监工罚（2020）230号, which fined Alibaba Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. for attempting to register multiple coronavirus-related trademarks in China on behalf of several applicants. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce platform in China and the #1 e-commerce platform in the world based on gross merchandise value. Alibaba was acting as a trademark agent knowingly (or should have known) in violation of circumstances specified in Articles 19 paragraph 3 and 68 paragraph 1(3) of …
China’s Draft Measures for the Administration of Trademark Agencies Should Further Reduce Trademark Squatting
On September 24, 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Administrative Measures for Trademark Agencies (Draft for Comment) (商标代理管理办法 (征求意见稿)). While the measures mostly address the management of Chinese trademark agencies, several articles in the measures will be beneficial to foreign brands that have been and continue to be at risk of trademark squatting in China.