摘要
早在50年代,身为民间机构的中国贸易促进会,就设立了涉外商标代理机构——商标代理处。1980年,在成立国家专利局的同时,中国政府决定在贸促会设立涉外专利代理机构,次年贸促会专利代理处正式成立。它就是今天贸促会专利商标事务所的前身。
In as early as the 1950s, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (C CPIT) as a non-governmental organization set up a trade mark agency to handle matters related to foreign trade marks. In 1980 when the China Patent Office was set up, the Chinese Government decided to set up a foreign-related patent agency in the CCPIT. In 1981, the CCPIT Patent Agency was officially set up. This agency has developed into the CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency. A professional leader C CPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency is a leader in China's patent and trade mark business. According figures released by the China Patent Office, there are now nine agencies in China that have been authorized to handle foreign patent applications which receive a total number of between 40,000 and 50,000 foreign applications for Chinese patents a year. Of this amount, over 8,500 or one fifth are handled by CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency. At the same time, CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency handles more than 100, or one quarter, of the total number of applications for foreign patents by Chinese every year. According to figures released by the State Bureau of Trade Marks, there are now 37 agencies in China that have been authorized to handle foreign trade mark applications. CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency ranked first in 1997 by handling more than 10,000 applications by foreigners for trade mark registration in China, a business volume nearly 2,000 more than that handled by the agency second in the rank. At the same time, CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency handled more than 2,000 applications by Chinese for trade mark registration in foreign countries, the biggest number among its domestic counterpart. With offices in New York and San Francisco of the United States, Munich of Germany, Tokyo of Japan, and in Hong Kong and Shanghai, CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency has now grown into a non-governmental agency reputed at home and abroad. 'With a staff of just over 20 people, we handle more than 10,000 cases of trade marks imported from abroad, including registration of foreign trade marks in China, disputes over registration of trade marks, and cancellation of trade mark registrations,' Chen Xuernin, a lawyer with CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency, told the reporter. 'To serve as a trade mark registration agent does not mean staying in an office and waiting for clients. Instead, we have to do a lot of work before submission of an application. We have to, for instance, send scores of letters to our clients in foreign countries each day,' Chen explained. Thanks to the high quality of his staff, Chen said, CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency has managed to maintain its cutting edge among competitors. 'You may monopolize, or you may open up. But so far as we ourselves are concerned, we have unswervingly upheld the concept of being timely. What we have changed with the time is that we now have an even sharper sense of competition,' Chen said. According to Chen, to be timely is most important. CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency now uses computers to monitor the prescription of cases and exercise quality control, a method greatly conducive to the improvement of the agency's work efficiency. A guide of Chinese trade marks and patents to the world China now has 43 State-verified famous trade marks. Chen pointed out, however, that famous trade marks are created through arduous efforts by enterprises themselves instead of named by one or another organization. 'The Paris Convention contains special clauses on the protection of famous trade marks. Famous trade marks are determined on the basis of their popularity at the markets of their home countries. They can not be alleged by their users,' Chen argued. According to Chen, many famous Chinese enterprises including Hair, Changhong, Taiyangshen, Wahaha, Pengshibao, Liubiju, Tongrentang, Sun Foodstuffs, Kelong, SOVA, Gree, and Galanz are clients of CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency. Although all the trade marks used by these enterprises are popular at the Chinese market, only some of them have become famous trade marks verified by the State. According to Chen, these enterprises have built up a certain strength and are comparatively attentive to the protection of their trades. For this reason, he believes that some of these enterprises will become the first batch of creators of world-famous trade marks, although it will still take a long time for them to realize this dream. A lackey of foreigners? In recent years, CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency has handled many influential cases of infringement upon trade marks, such as the cases involving NGK spark plugs of Japan, Toshiba batteries, Wansheng soft discs, Kao shampoos, YKK chains, and Marlboro packaging of the United States. Of these cases, the case involving YKK chains has been most influential and most successfully concluded. In early September 1995, the YKK company of Japan asked CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency to file a complaint with the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, alleging that large quantities of chains bearing the trade mark of YKK were being wholesaled and retailed in areas around the Zhejiang Village in Chongwen and Fengtai districts of Beijing. It requested for investigation and punishment of these illegal activities. Organized by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Trade, extensive surprise checks were carried out by more than 100 people including the lawyers from CCPIT Patents and Trade Marks Agency on the morning of October 12 of the year in these two biggest cloth wholesale markets in the Chinese capital. More than 1.81 million faked chains bearing the trade mark of YKK and over 100,000 faked trade mark tags were discovered during these checks. These checks won appraisal from various circles, and the documentary recording these checks produced far-reaching influences after it was aired by the China Central Television Station.
