Successfully registering a trademark is not easy. After registration, the trademark owner still needs to do a few important things to keep it alive. Under the China Trademark Laws, registered trademarks can be canceled on the grounds of non-use for three consecutive years.
Like many other countries, China also has a trademark cancellation procedure on the grounds of non-use. If a registered trademark has not been used for over three years, a third party may request to cancel it. The cancellation request is examined and decided by the Trademark Office of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). If the parties are not satisfied by CNIPA's decision, they may apply for a review. If the review result is still not satisfying, they may appeal to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court.
The Chinese invention patent No. 2007800035278, titled “Systems and Methods for Diverting Objects”, is owned by Laitram LLC and is exclusively licensed to Intralox LLC (“Intralox”).
Due to a large number of existing trademarks, trademark registration applications in China are often rejected due to alleged conflicts with prior applications or registrations. A Letter of Consent (LoC) may provide a practical and efficient solution for such situations.
The Patent Search Report (hereinafter referred to as "Search Report") is a search report that may be requested by anybody to suit their own specialized needs, including: novelty searches, existing technology/existing design searches, special searches, granted patent searches, legal status searches, searches of patent families, tracking searches, infringement analysis, patent invalidity searches, etc.
Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a program to fast-track patent examination. It greatly speeds up the examination process for patent applications filed in participating intellectual property offices.
A trademark is defined as a distinct symbol that clarifies the origin of goods or services. Trademarks provide legal protection for a company’s brand while also playing a critical role in the company’s development.
Trademarks differentiate the goods or services of one company from those of its competitors. When purchasing products, consumers will recognize the trademark and thus identify the company providing said products. Over time, consumers may begin to view recognizable trademarks as symbols for good quality or other positive traits. In this way, the influence of a trademark may lead to increased trust and reliance among consumers, contributing to the development of company.
Can random animations created by the player of a video game reflect the original creation of the game designers? Deliberation is pending in a case involving two game developers that will be an important reference for the determination of copyright in sandbox games (a video game in which the player is not constrained to achieving specific goals and that gives the player a great degree of creativity).
According to Article 32 of Chinese Trademark Law, no trademark application should infringe upon another party's existing prior rights. Prior rights include non-trademark rights obtained before trademark rights, such as copyright, design patent rights, name rights, trade name rights, portrait rights, and patent rights.
China’s Supreme People’s Court formally introduced a concept of "design freedom" at the time of the issuance of an Interpretation in 2016. The concept has been applied to the practices of design retrieval, infringement, and invalidation analysis. In combination of factors of “ordinary consumer” and "overall comprehensive judgment", a prediction of a court judgment can thus be made from more standard and objective analysis.
