When interpreting this opinion, there are four points merit attention:

To reinforce protection to brand owners and consumers

The Strategy requests that trademark enforcement shall be reinforced, counterfeiting shall be strictly cracked down, fair competition market order shall be maintained and trademark owner as well as the consumers’ legal rights and interests shall be duly protected.

To control the examination period within one year

The National Trademark Strategy clearly advocates that the management of trademark registration shall be strengthened, the efficiency of trademark examination shall be increased, the examination period shall be shortened and the examination quality shall be guaranteed. Until the end of 2010, the serious backlog of trademark examination caused by great increase of trademark applications shall be completely resolved. The trademark examination period shall be controlled within 12 months.

To improve trademark legislations this year and next year

The National Trademark Strategy lay out the tasks that trademark legislation shall be improved, and especially that revision of the Trademark law shall be speeded up.

The current Trademark Law was adopted on Aug.23, 1982 at the 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People’s Congress, and took effect on March 1, 1982.

The major purpose of the revision of the Trademark Law rests in shortening the examination period, improving the trademark approval proceedings, guarding against bad faith applications, strengthening protection over trademark, and preventing misuses of trademark rights. The revision is aimed at making the revised trademark law not only comply with Chinese national situation, but also accord with the international obligations that the country shall undertake.

To actively encourage domestic business to file trademark applications in foreign countries

The Strategy encourages domestic enterprises to use self-owned trademark in international trade and to actively file trademarks in foreign countries. In addition, the Strategy also advocates local business to actively respond to overseas trademark disputes in order to stop preemptive registrations and counterfeiting activities by properly using laws in that area and the international rules.

It is learned that the two implantation regulations are Provisions on the Prohibition of Abuse of Dominant Market Positions and Provisions on the Prohibition of Acts involving Monopolistic Agreements, which take effect on July 1, 2009.

According to the regulations, any entity and individual is entitled to file a complaint against suspected anti-monopoly law violations to AICs, and AICs shall keep the complaint confidential. SAIC and provincial AICs shall be responsible for the acceptance of the complaint. AICs below provincial level that have received complaint shall, within five business days, transfer the relevant complaint materials to provincial AICs. When accepting the complaint, the authority shall make record of the complaint and examine and verify the content of the materials. If the complaint materials are not complete, the complainant shall be notified to make supplementary in due course.

During the investigation carried out by AICs in accordance with law, persons that refuse to provide, provide false information or hide, destroy or displaces evidence, or impede the investigation, shall be punished in accordance with the Anti-Monopoly Law. The investigated business operator may apply for suspension of investigation and undertake to take specific measures within prescribed term to eliminate the negative influence brought by the violation. AICs may exempt or reduce penalties for business operators who voluntarily report relevant circumstance and provide significant evidence. If it is verified to be monopolistic conduct through investigation, AICs shall render decisions to impose administrative penalty according to law. Regarding anti-monopoly cases with great significance, SAIC shall report the case to the Anti-monopoly Commission before imposing administrative penalty. AICs may publish the anti-monopoly cases investigated and penalized to general public.

Most Comprehensive Database in China Providing 50 Million Pieces of Data

The platform has gathered more than 50 million pieces of data of patent documents from nearly 80 countries, international organizations and regions, which occupy more than 90 percent of all the global patent documents. At present, the platform is the most comprehensive patent database system available in China.

According to the officials of Intellectual Property Office of Shanghai Municipal Government, the platform is completely a public service provided by the government, and common users can enjoy basic search services without payment. For the sake of special users, the platform also provides individualized services such as registered-user services and value-added user services at very low prices.

Providing Auxiliary Search Functions

The platform provides various auxiliary search functions, such as IPC (International Patent Classification) search, concept search, enterprise name association search, Chinese and English bilingual search, automatic keywords composition and so on, and therefore reduces requirements for the skills of user, so that even a user with few search experience can also make search very conveniently.

It is learned that so far Haier has taken part in the formulation of a total of 19 international standards, wherein three international standards including “Electricity-Proof Wall” technique was already promulgated and entered into force. In China, Haier is the household appliances enterprise which has participated in formulating the largest number of international standards, national standards and trade standards. Domestically, Haier has organized or taken part in the formulation and/or amendments of 192 national standards, and formulated 439 trade and other standards, and 8 standards out of them won prizes for “innovative contribution in national standards”. Until 2008, Haier Group has filed a total of 8795 patent applications, including 2261 patent applications for invention. In 2008, Haier group filed 912 patent applications, including 525 patent applications for invention, that is, filed an average of 2 applications for invention per working day. Haier Group is the Chinese household appliances enterprise possessing the largest number of patents.

This time the four standard proposals relating to refrigerator techniques raised by Haier were formally accepted as international standards, meaning that Haier’s prosecution of self-originated intellectual properties has gained new achievements, and it’s also a landmark for Haier, which is keeping its leading position in the international refrigerator market.