TGIF

"Not made in China" trademark

Gibraltar based Alvito Holdings has applied to register the text mark 'Not made in China' and two graphical marks at the EU's Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM). OHIM has already published the application here.

In the US Alvito Holdings tried to register the same marks but a woman named Teresita Pastoriza, applied sooner.

Emma Barraclough wrote for MIP:
"But Dennis Bi, a trade mark attorney with BTA Trademark and Patent Law Office in Beijing said that allowing someone to register the phrase as a trade mark was "not good for China".
He added: "It violates the dignity of China and hurts the feelings of the whole Chinese people.
We have already told the IP firm that we work with in the US that as soon as the mark is published in the US Patent and Trademark Office Gazette then we will oppose it....We hope that the Chinese Trade Mark Association and the authorities concerned will assist us to submit the case to the local trade mark authorities through diplomatic channels and let them refuse the applications."

However OHIM's decision to accept the "Not made in China" mark contrasts with a ruling made by the USPTO's appeal body, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in 2004. The Appeal Board backed an examiner's decision rejecting an application in 2003 to register "Not made in France" for clothing.

IP Kat's Ilanah Simon is asking: "is a mark which tells consumers about the qualities that goods do not have descriptive?"

Read more about it in the MIP here, in the People's Daily here or in The Hindu here.

Just see this

The above mentioned Beijing Trademark & Patent Agency wants to protect your IPR but instead has an interesting moving banner on top: Just .... See here (read carefully).

previous TGIF next