Japanese sake and shochu brewers that want to start exporting to China were not amused when they found out that their brands have been registered by Chinese trademark squatters, that want to sell the trademarks to the Japanese brewers, especially since 2004. The Yomiuri Shimbun writes:".. of the 25 liquor trademarks used by Japanese firms, five already have been registered in China, and the rest are under examination."
In the article the author writes a few times about registrations at the "patent office". However, this must be "trademark office". In China you can register invention-patents, utility-patents and design-patents at the patent office, which is part of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). Trademarks, however you only register at the China Trademark Office (CTMO), which is part of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
Read the Yomiuri Shimbun article here.
1 comment:
The same thing happened to Intel with the 286,386 & 486 chips. Somebody snaged the rights to the next numers in the series and they had to change the name of the next generation to pentium. Can the Japanese products survive the Chinese calling them by a new name? Time will tell.
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