At September 8th 2017 the Shenyang local authorities hosted the first Shenyang-Germany Intellectual Property Seminar. The German-China Industrial Park of Shenyang has made a lot of effort to organize this event and get an interesting group of participants together. Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht gave a lesson about the differences between the Chinese and German trademark law. Thanks to all 60 participants and my co-speakers, special from the University of Shenyang, the Intelllectual Property Office and the Custom Service of Shenyang.

Counterfeiting products are not unusual in China. The key players of E-commerce in China are the Alibaba Group , which holds 70% of the total E-commerce market in China with Taobao and Tmall, and JD. com with a 20% market share. They step up taking various measures to crack down on counterfeit products, but the effect is quite limited. According to a survey published by State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China (SAIC) and China Consumers’ Association in 2015, there are 7 of 9 E-commerce platforms in the spot-check which sell counterfeit or substandard quality goods. However...

Taobao won an online landmark counterfeiting case against a vendor selling fake Royal Canin cat food on the huge online market. The court ruled that the defendant, a man named Yao, damaged the reputation of Taobao and therefore should pay compensation in the amount of 120.000 Yuan within 10 days. Taobao is also asking the court to order the defendant to publish a written apology in several prominent print and web publications for a week.

This was the first ruling of its kind in China, exemplifying the country’s efforts to fight counterfeiting which has cast a shadow over China’s...

In the " Tyrolean Economy " of August 10th 2017 you will find an article entitled "How to secure Tyrolean businesses against trademark viaolation in China". The article is in German language. Experts report on the invitation of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber how to effectively protect themselves against trademark infringements and plagiarism. The Austrian Economic Chambers represent more than 450,000 member companies and is voice of Austrian business.

The article reports in detail about the speeches of Dr. Martin Glatz , head of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Beijing,...

ORG Packaging Co. is being sued by TC Pharmaceuticals for infringing the Red Bull trademark right of TC Pharmaceuticals.

Being one of the major suppliers of Reignwood Group , it announced in July its receipt of a civil complaint and other filings with the Peoples Court in Beijing serving notice of the suits, which demands the court order ORG Packaging to cease forging and manufacturing its registered trademarks - including “Red Bull” and associated image logos - and claiming compensation for its monetary losses in the amount of over CNY 30 Mio.

This has been part of a...

Starke Managing Counsel Daniel Albrecht published an article about " Legal Protection of Intellectual Property in China " in Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft (RIW 2017) , Heft 05, Beilage, Seiten 1-12.

You can download the full article: here

Sample:

"To obtain trademark protection in China, an application for a China trademark can be filed through the national registration system or the international registration system. For a national trademark application in China, an application has to be filed at the China Trademark Office by an official agent....