China “National” Products – with or without

Do you love your country? This is a question always asked by the authority. How do you define a “patriot”? How about consuming the national brands of products? Well, the names of national brands of products in China usually start with “Kuo” which means “country” or “national” …

“Bank of China” (中國銀行), “Petro China Company” (中國石油天然氣股份有限公司), “National Wine: Gui Zhou Moutai” (國酒貴州茅台), “Chung Hwa Pencils” (中華牌鉛筆) … wait a second, are they really produced by the country?

Some Chinese parents have a preference to name their children starting with “Kuo” (國) (pronounced in Putonghua) or “Kwok” (國) (pronounced in Cantonese) as their first name, it means “country” or “national”. They would usually add another preferred element/meaning as the second name after “Kuo” or “Kwok”, e.g. Kuo-Ming (means “clever”) for boys, Kuo-Mei (means “beautiful”) for girls … wait a minute, are they “made in China”?!

You may consider the above ridiculous, however, it may become necessary after an official notice about products containing the name or trademark as “China”, “country” etc. has been published at the PRC’s Trademark Office, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (CTMO) on 28 July 2010.

This notice is composed of 3 major parts:

(1) Compliance of Laws/Regulations (法律依據);

(2) Review of trademarks containing the word of “China” (含「中國」字樣商標的審查審理標准); and

(3) Review of trademarks containing the first word of “country” (首字為「國」字商標的審查審理標准).

Ironically, some “national” brands of products exist in the market for a long period of time, causing the consumers (local and overseas) to believe that they are really produced by the country! The best example is “National Wine: Gui Zhou Moutai” (國酒貴州茅台). It is usually served for overseas (especially from USA) presidents, ambassadors and senior officers in China since mid 1970’s.

With the enforcement of this new law/regulation, some existing “national” products which have been in the market for some time would be put in an embarrassing position. Hopefully the brand-building of these “national” products is blossoming in a mutual-beneficial way!

Patent of Invention and Patent of Utility Model in China

For patent applicants in China, or inventors in China, the cost to apply for a patent of Invention and Patent of Utility Model is still a major determination factor. That is why you can see a lot of China originated patent applications are Patent of Utility Model.

This, as a matter of fact, created a large (relatively) number of patent specification that eventually did not go through any examination process. It is just too easy, in terms of cost and process, to get a Patent of Utility Model granted.

We have been approached to provide opinion for value of a granted Chinese patent, with a good story and a patent certificate. Quite often, we cannot put a value on it. This is a polite way of saying that it is worthless.

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Patent applications after publication

I have a couple of calls from different clients related to the publication of patent application (Patent of utility module).

China has a very rigid time schedule, that application are published 18-months after filing date. Anyone who cares to know, can go to the web site http://www.sipo.gov.cn to search for it. That means the invention as described in the application becomes publicly available. Patent applicant may consider to request for examination (if not already done so). Applicant can request for examination within 3 years after filing, failing which, it lapses.

Applicant can withdraw the patent application before publication, then it would not be available to the public, the application and the knowledge related to the invention will remain confidential. Once it is published, then it is no longer confidential information, as the original patent application was intended for 'skilled person of the trade' to understand and to build the embodiment according to what was disclosed in the application. So filing a patent application without going through examination like disclosing your way of building a new invention.

Having said that, there are clients who just want to file an application in China and do not want to spend time and money to go through the patent examination process. There are different commercial considerations for doing this. One being that you have three years' time to claim that you have one 'patent-pending' for the cost of the filing. If the invention is not commercial viable after testing the market for 18-months, applicant can just abandon the patent application.

World Expo Shanghai 2010 - Theme Song: A Challenge or Tribute?

The China government is busy in sending thousands of rescue officers together with food, water, medicine and supplements to QingHai after the horrible earthquakes happened on April 14, 2010, also busy in “decorating” this new wound before the opening of “World Expo Shanghai 2010” on May 1, 2010!

Within or beyond expectation, just two weeks before the opening, their theme song “Waiting you in 2010” (2010等你來) has sparkled this mega event. This is not the same case of Beijing Olympics 2008 during which 2 lovely little girls sang the theme song, one with an open identity while the other one was the hidden-singer. This Expo song is presented by various movie-stars, pop-stars and sports-stars from Hong Kong and China.

It was reported that this Expo song is actually a copyright infringed from a Japanese song “Sonomama no Kimi de ite” (不變的你就好) sung by Maya Okamoto in 1996, 15 years ago! A Singaporean composer has compared and commented these two songs that the Chinese one is 97% identical to the Japanese one.

It is widely recognized that the “copyright” issues in China still has room for improvement, this case is particularly interesting and impressive as it may turn out to be a cultural or diplomatic issue.

After the first Expo being held in London in 1851, it is China’s first time to hold the Expo just 2 years after the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Similarly, Japan held its first Expo in 1970 (the second and third time were at 1985 and 2005) which was 6 years after its Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Needless to say, being a host of Expo is an excellent chance to showcase its power as well as to seek for international recognition. Obviously, China seems more powerful, or aggressive as it only requires 2 years to host Expo while Japan made it after 6 years.

In that case, is this new Chinese theme song a “challenge” or simply a “tribute” from Chinese to Japanese? If it is a “challenge”, is it a soft declaration of China’s upgrading international status? If it is a “tribute”, is it a token for appreciation of the Japanese pop-culture?

Nevertheless, it may be a fabulous idea if the Chinese government invites that Japanese singer to present their theme song on its opening …

The “original” Japanese song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_GxVPwSTdw

The “revised” Expo theme song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lijrVXnCstQ

The “comparison” or “mixed” version of Japanese & Chinese song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShWNv48CzQk&feature=related