Today, Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in China Li Kaian convened the Ambassador’s Intellectual Property Roundtable “Trademarks: Building a Global Brand”. More than 150 guests attended the meeting, including Liu Junchen, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and representatives from the Chinese government, industry and intellectual property circles.

This roundtable meeting is a closed-door meeting and is divided into three topics: ?Working together to build and protect global brands?, Registering trademarks in China: new issues under the newly revised Trademark Law and Strategy?, and ?Enforcing your trademark in China: Developing effective strategies through collaboration?.

For more than ten years, the Ambassador’s Intellectual Property Roundtable has been the most important activity for cooperation between the U.S. Embassy and China on intellectual property. This one-day meeting, with the theme of trademark, is the third in a series of roundtable meetings held in the past year. The theme of the 2015 roundtable is Copyright, Patents and Trade Secrets.

The United States ranks first in the number of foreign trademark applications and registrations in China

During the meeting, Liu Junchen, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, pointed out that with the in-depth development of Sino-US investment and trade, A large number of American brands have become the favorites of Chinese consumers and producers. In recent years, the United States has always ranked first in the number of foreign trademark applications and registrations in China. In 2015 alone, 36,877 trademark applications were submitted and 30,781 registered trademarks were filed in China.

In addition, Liu Junchen also said that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce will further improve the protection of trademark registration management and trademark management rights, and create fair competition and open and transparent brands for domestic and foreign companies, including American companies. development environment. In 2015, of the 6,407 cases investigated and handled by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce that infringed upon the rights of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign trademark registrants, 2,078 involved U.S. trademarks, accounting for one-third of the total.

China has the largest number of trademark applications in the world, but its brand internationalization is not high. Building a global brand is to promote investment and trade, promote economic globalization, protect trademarks, brands and intellectual property rights, and protect wisdom, invention and innovation. ?Liu Junchen pointed out in his keynote speech that in the context of difficult global economic recovery, this is of great significance to both enterprises and government departments, especially to China's economic development. China has reached a period of developing brand economy.

China has become a major trademark country. According to reports, the number of trademark registration applications in my country in 2015 was 2.876 million, ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. As of the end of 2015, the cumulative number of trademark applications in my country exceeded 18 million, the cumulative number of registrations was more than 12 million, and the number of effective registrations was more than 10 million, achieving three "over 10 million".

The international brand awareness of Chinese enterprises continues to increase. In 2015, domestic applicants applied for 2,321 registered trademarks abroad through the Madrid International Trademark Registration System, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%, ranking 6th in the Madrid Union.

The capitalization and operation capabilities of trademarks and brands have been continuously enhanced. In 2015, *** handled 1,175 trademark pledge registration applications, a year-on-year increase of 55%, and helped companies raise 34.3 billion yuan. Among them, Ningbo Dongqian Lake Investment and Development Co., Ltd. pledged the "Dongqian Lake" trademark and obtained 200 million yuan in financing, setting a record for a single financing in Zhejiang Province that year.

Global brand value continues to increase. Currently, there are 14 Chinese companies on the list of the world's most valuable brands, compared with only one 10 years ago. Overall, brand value has increased by about 1,000% compared to 10 years ago.

Although China has made great achievements in the development of trademarks and brands, Liu Junchen emphasized that the gap between China and developed countries should also be noted:

First of all, my country’s internationally renowned trademarks and brands Relatively few, and international competitiveness needs to be enhanced. In 2015, in the 2015 "Top 500 World Brands" list compiled by the World Brand Laboratory, the United States ranked first with 228 brands; the United Kingdom ranked second with 44 brands; Japan and China ranked 37 and 31 respectively. brand ranks in the second camp.

Secondly, although our country is already a big country with trademarks, the value of trademarks is not high. For every 100 billion U.S. dollars of GDP, the United States is created by 2,175 trademarks, while my country is created by 12,071 trademarks. In other words, the average actual economic benefit generated by each trademark in the United States is six times that of China. This shows that the ability of Chinese trademarks to create benefits is relatively weak.

Third, Chinese brands are not highly internationalized.

Although China ranks first in the world in terms of trademark applications, only 4% seek trademark protection abroad, while 96% of Chinese applicants seek registration in China. Compared with China, 75% of Switzerland's trademarks are international trademarks and 40% of the United States' trademarks are international trademarks. This shows that the awareness and ability of Chinese independent brands to explore the international market need to be improved.