More than 80,000 trademarks from Taiwan, including Taiwan Beer, Chunghwa Telecom and China Airlines, have been successfully registered in China out of 140,000 applications submitted, a visiting Chinese official said yesterday.
Among the successfully registered trademarks, 11 have received the “famous brand” logo, said Fu Shuangjian (傅雙建), vice director of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
The 11 include Acer, BenQ, Kinmen Kaoliang (Sorghum) Liquor, Giant, Natural Beauty and Taisun.
Chinese trademarks
In comparison, Chinese entities have registered more than 7,000 trademarks in Taiwan, Fu said.
“The figure is small, but I’m sure it will get bigger in future,” he said at the Cross-Strait Trademark Forum, which is being sponsored by Taiwan’s General Chamber of Commerce.
Straits Exchange Foundation Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) said at the opening of the forum that China’s illegal use of famous Taiwanese place names, such as mountain resort Alishan and scenic Sun Moon Lake, had been resolved.
However, a dispute over the registration of the “Bank of Taiwan” name remained unsettled, he said.
Bank of Taiwan
The problem arose last year when Bank of Taiwan intended to open a representative office in Shanghai, but found that a Shanghai company had already applied to use the name.
The bank contested the application of the Shanghai company, which, Fu said, makes magnetic cards, banknote counters and other products for the banking industry.
Because Bank of Taiwan has a long history in Taiwan and enjoys some degree of recognition in China, the state administration was worried the Shanghai company’s use of the name could mislead consumers and therefore decided to side with the Taiwanese bank and reject the Shanghai company’s application, Fu said.
He added that the ruling on the Bank of Taiwan case was made after Beijing and Taipei signed a cooperation agreement on intellectual property rights protection in June last year, an indication that the mechanism has already had a positive effect.
However, Fu said Bank of Taiwan had yet to complete the registration of its trademark in China.
He said that trademark registration was a civil lawsuit, with both parties’ rights protected, adding that the Shanghai company could still appeal the case.
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