Make All Our Efforts to Make Outstanding Achievements In
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Make all our efforts to make outstanding achievements in excellent and efficient service to the scientific development of society and economy during the all-round implementation of Trademark Strategy, to welcome the grand opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Zhou Bohua March 22, 2012 Preface The year 2011 was the beginning year for implementing the Twelfth National Five-Year Plan. During this year, under the leadership of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce(SAIC) and the support from the internal departments and subordinates of SAIC, Trademark Office(CTMO) carried out the decisions of the SAIC Work Meeting, Party Work Style and Clean Government Work Meeting, SAIC commendation meeting for clearing out backlog of trademark applications and reviews, in accordance with SAIC’s requirement of the“Five-Fours” and“Five-More”, turning its attention from efficiency to a balance between quality and efficiency by creating a new work mechanism, and from trademark examination to a balance between trademark strategy and trademark examination by creating a new administration mechanism. By emphasizing infrastructure building, regulations and administration, Trademark Office changed from emergency work situation back to normal, making full use of trademarks as an important tool for economic and social development and continuously promoting its capacity in trademark registration, utilization, protection and administration. Therefore, various tasks on trademark achieved new results, which contributed to a good beginning of Twelfth Five-Year Plan. ——On the basis of clearing out backlog of trademark applications and reviews in 2010, the work on examination of trademark application and trademark review cases were successfully completed. In 2011, 1,205,529 trademark applications were examined,and the examination period was shortened to 10 months. 56,829 oppositions were ruled,75.14% increased than last year. Backlog of oppositions were 81,526, 22.17% less than last year. 35,043 trademark review cases were handled, with the review period controlled less than 18 months. 1,416,785 trademark applications were accepted, 32.14% increased than last year and doubled the number in 2008, making a historical record and ranking 1st in the world for a consecutive ten years. 804,926 applications were received online, accounting for 56.8% of the total trademark applications. 1.811 billion Yuan of trademark fee was received, 28% increased than last year. China accumulatively had 9,711,500 trademark applications, 6,650,700 trademark registrations and 5,510,100 valid trademark registrations, ranking top of the world. ——Deeply carrying out the Special Campaign on cracking down upon IP infringement and production and sales of shoddy goods, in order to enhance protection on trademark rights. During 9 months of the Special Campaign, AICs at all levels mobilized 3.978 million law enforcement officers, checked 9.226 million operating businesses and 802 thousand markets of all kinds, destroyed 4,966 sites where counterfeit and shoddy goods were produced and marketed (accounting for 54.36% of total statistics from all administrative enforcement authorities), and revoked 1,745 business licenses. Among 90.7 thousand infringement and counterfeiting cases being investigated and prosecuted (accounting for 58.16% of total statistics from all administrative enforcement authorities), 13.8 thousand cases related to well-known trademarks, 13.2 thousand related to foreign-related trademarks, 648 related to GIs and 757 cases were transferred to judicial organizations (accounting for 44.48% of total statistics from all administrative enforcement authorities). In 2011, 693 well-known trademarks were recognized in the procedure of trademark administration and opposition. So far, 3,187 trademarks had been recognized as well-known trademarks through administrative procedures and had enjoyed enlarged protection. ——Promoting implementation of trademark strategy for establishing innovation- based country. The National Trademark Strategy Implementation Model Cities (districts) Experience Exchanging and Trademark Utilization and Protection Conference was successfully held.National Trademark Strategy Implementation Model Cities (districts) Suzhou Consensus were signed by the 53 Model Cities (districts), making public commitment to the whole society in firmly implementing trademark strategy and respecting and protecting intellectual property. On the occasion of the Fourth China Trademark Festival in September 2011, the first granting ceremony of“China Trademark Award” was held by SAIC and World Intellectual Property Organization, which rewarded to the organizations and individuals who had outstanding accomplishments on trademark registration, utilization, protection and administration. The trademark promotion delegation went to Xinjiang and made speeches on trademark strategy in 3 regions and autonomous prefectures, supporting economy development in ethnic, rural and poor regions with the tool of trademark strategy. Various publicity activities of“April 26 Intellectual Property Publicity Week” were organized and the Annual Development Report on China Trademark Strategy in 2010 was issued, providing reference in implementation of trademark strategy in all regions. Trademark pledge registration handled 493 applications, financing 13.3 billion Yuan, encouraging and supporting companies in using trademarks to explore their market value as intangible assets. ——Further enhancing registration and protection of trademark for agricultural products and geographical indications, serving socialist new countryside construction. In 2011, 341 geographical indications were registered and preliminarily approved, with the total up to 1,382 (among which 38 were registered by foreign applicants). All together 1.108 million trademarks for agricultural products were approved for registration. To carry out Opinion for Improving the Mechanism of Geographical Indications Protection and Administration issued by the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, SAIC took the lead in establishing an inter-ministry joint coordination mechanism for geographical indications protection and a joint determination mechanism for geographical indications, with a view to solve the problem that the applicants got confused when geographical indications were governed by different ministries. ——Intensifying trademark registration and protection abroad and supporting the "Going Out strategy" of the enterprises. In 2011, CTMO accepted 18,724 Madrid applications filed by foreign applicants designating China, with an accumulated filing number of 167,025, ranking the first for seven consecutive years among Madrid Union. Chinese applicants filed via CTMO 2,053 international trademark applications through Madrid system, with an accumulated filing number of 13,297, ranking the seventh in the world and the first among developing countries. CTMO actively coordinated the case of "FOTON" mark of Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd being registered in bad faith in Vietnam and the case of "Baidu" mark of Baidu Company being registered in bad faith in EU, protecting Chinese companies’ lawful rights abroad. ——Enhancing building of trademark infrastructure, providing more efficient and more convenient service to the public. In 2011, a series of measures were taken at the trademark application hall, such as issuing notice of acceptance on spot immediately after receiving the application documents and accepting Union card payment for trademark fees, which were welcomed by applicants On November 4, on a research visit on“Building an Advanced Party Cell and Striving to be an Excellent Party Member”, Minister Li Yuanchao of the Organization Department of CCCPC, visited the trademark application hall and highly appraised the approach of simplifying trademark renewal procedure for the convenience of applicants. In order to make government affairs more public, 2,199 public messages on the official website were replied, with a handling rate reaching 100% (99.39% replied online and a few replied by phone). Besides, special manpower was dedicated to receive and reply 60,500 consulting calls, with the efforts to have all of them replied.“China Trademark Website had 2.708 billion hits for the whole year. In addition, new progress was made in trademark legislation, studies in trademark theories, administration of trademark agencies, international exchanges and cooperation and team building, providing strong support to trademark development in China. To better and comprehensively display new achievements of trademark work and Trademark Strategy implementation, further popularize knowledge of Trademark Law and strengthen awareness of trademark protection and innovation of the whole society, facilitate decisions of local government, company investment and public service, enhance the influence of utilizing trademark strategy, and better serve the development of economy and society, under the instruction of Minister Zhou Bohua and Vice Minister Fu Shuangjian of SAIC, CTMO and TRAB compiled the Annual Development Report on China's Trademark Strategy (2011) (hereinafter referred as Annual Development Report) to wrap up China's trademark developments in 2011. The Annual Development Report (2011) consists of 13 chapters starting with Implementation of Trademark Strategy. It systematically recorded the achievements in 2011 made by AIC system in terms of trademark application and registration, trademark administrative enforcement,