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Chinese piracy a growing issue

Strawberries from Dahu (大湖), dried beancurd from Dashi (大溪) and wax apples from Pingtung are all familiar Taiwanese specialties. But these names have all been used by Chinese firms as their own exclusive trademarks in order to masquerade their products as Taiwanese.

The Council of Agriculture (COA) is fighting back against the practice by contesting the trademarks with Chinese authorities. However, so far their efforts have only resulted in two trademarks being revoked, that of Alishan teas and Sun Moon Lake teas.

The council said that, the problem of produce piracy first came to light three years ago when Taiwanese tea merchants found that the location names of their teas had been appropriated by Chinese firms.

This not only harmed their sales in China, but has the potential to impact the home market as well if the cheap "counterfeit" teas end up flooding the Taiwanese market.

The names of eight famous Taiwanese tea-producing areas fell prey to a rush-registration by Chinese firms. The Taiwan Tea Merchants Association appealed to the Chinese Copyright Evaluation Committee on behalf of the COA and other Taiwanese governmental departments last June to get the copycat trademarks revoked.

They were successful in the case of Alishan and Sun Moon Lake teas, but the evaluation committee turned down its request to revoke the trademark Meishan on the grounds that an area called Meishan also exists in China.

An attempt to revoke the trademark Hsitou (溪頭) was also turned down by the committee, saying that the name could literally mean "the source of a creek" and therefore does not necessarily refer to the Taiwanese area name.

Apart from tea production names, the council is targeting five major local specialties whose names have been appropriated by Chinese firms -- Coffee from Gukeng (古坑), rice noodles from Hsinchu, soy sauce from Hsilo(西螺), rice from Chishang (池上) and guava from Yenchao (燕巢).

When and if those exclusive trademarks have been revoked, these names will then become common trademarks, a COA official said.

Chinese firms would still be able to sell their own produce under those names, but the authentic article could also be sold using those names without infringing on Chinese trademark law.

COA officials said that the best solution to the problem would be to register the names of Taiwanese specialties ahead of Chinese companies with the Chinese authorities. As soon as this was done, products that were not produced in that location could not be sold using that name.

However, for many well-loved Taiwanese agricultural and food specialties, it is already too late.

A search conducted at the request of Taiwan's Intellectual Property Office (IPO), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has found that 51 Taiwanese specialties had been registered as trademarks by Chinese firms ahead of any legitimate claims. Even local snacks such as cow tongue cookies from Ilan had not been spared.

IPO officials said that under Taiwanese laws, a particular area cannot be registered as a trademark -- but produce must refer to its actual production location. The Chinese government, however, accepts areas as trademarks as long as they are below the state level.

Trademark claims in Taiwan are always scrutinized for legitimacy, said IPO officials, so that those who seek to register place names or existing brands as their own are always turned down.
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