IP Dragon Chosen As One of the "25 Blogs Chinese Advertisers Should Read"

Normandy Madden composed a list of 25 blogs Chinese advertisers should read for Advertising Age:

"Blogging has become a national obsession in China, with over 50 million Chinese regularly contributing to local blog sites. A handful of these sites are written in English, and provide a fascinating perspective on a country that is changing quickly. Below, we've identified 25 blogs that can serve as a great resource for marketers in China."

18. IP Dragon (ipdragon.blogspot.com) is dedicated to gathering and sharing information about intellectual property in China, a murky area since government officials have been slow to crack down on piracy.

Thank you Ms Madden and Advertising Age for the compliment.
Read the complete list here.

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Message of Blog Urges State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping "To Clarify" Intellectual Property Rights Position

Jia Li of the People's Daily reported that the State Bureau of Surveying and Maps (SBSM) announced that the Map World, a Chinese public platform for national geographical information was released on October 21, 2010 and was considered a web service independently developed by China.

Jia Li writes: "But one Chinese person raised doubts about this on a blog the next day, saying the satellite maps used in Map World most likely come from the U.S.-based DigitalGlobe, which is the satellite imagery provider of Google Maps."

"SBSM clarified that the independent intellectual property of Map World refers to the online service software, but not data resource like the satellite imagery itself."

Read the People's Daily article here.

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Q&A on Trademark Proactive (TP), Tipi and Indian Givers

I was delighted by the questions after I uploaded my Asia Pacific IP Forum presentation in Hong Kong to Slideshare: 'How Social Media Challenge the Brandscape for Trademark Holders' in which I propose a solution for trademark holders: Trademark Proactive (TP).

Below I will explain some key points of TP:

Why should a trademark holder give away some of its rights? Social media users will use or abuse trademarks, whether trademark holders want it or not. Because of the characterisics of Social Media the spreading of damaging content can hardly be stopped. However, with TP they do not give away any right. To be proactive a trademark holder engages with the Social Media users and regains some of its control by authorising some use of the trademark under certain conditions.

Rob Polet, President, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Gucci Group put it this way at a presentation at Google Zeitgeist Europe 2010 (starting from minute 38): "How do we manage this community of Facebook? Friends that we have. 660,000 for the Gucci Brand. And I said, well you interact with them. You ask them everything they want to tell you. Ah, but they might say something which is bad about us. That's exactly what you like to know. Yeah, but it'll be public. But you know what? We better have it saying it to you, then being public, and saying to their friends anyway."

And Dan Cobley, marketing manager of Google gave an interesting TED presentation about what physics taught him about marketing: "The lesson from physics is that entropy always increases, it's a fundamental law. The message for marketing is that your brand is more dispersed, you can't fight it, so embrace it, and find a way to work with it."

Why do service providers need to assume liability?
Service providers (such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger) are more and more setting up the rules. Therefore it is fair they should also be held liable for non-enforcement of these rules. This will be pushing service providers to come up with Terms of Use that are effectively enforceable. In other words, Social Media could become more or less restrictive than trademark law, on a contractual basis. So far the Social Media sites' business model is advertising paid by trademark holders. Therefore it is justified that the trademark holders get something in return: enforcement of their trademarks.

What makes an effective and efficient enforcement of trademark authorisations possible?
Social Media could automatically compare the request for a third level domain name or content which mentions a trademark, and one database in which trademark holders have given exactly what is possible with their trademarks and under what conditions. Enforcement could be also automatically, without elaborate notice and take down procedures.

What kind of trademark use and under what kind of conditions could a trademark holder proactively authorise to a Social Media user?
A trademark holder could for example proactively authorise that a Social Media user could use a trademarked logo online, to illustrate an article about the brand, under the condition that the logo is not altered, and that the logo is linked to the official website of the brand. Or the logo could be altered, or used in parody, or used in comparative advertising (only in jurisdictions where this is allowed).

Why is the symbol of TP a tipi?
TP stands for Trademark Proactive, but can be pronounced as tipi. The tipi refers to a place where disputes can be solved. When the first Europeans came into contact with native Americans and for example they were cold, the Indians provided them with blankets. When they did not need the blankets anymore, the Indians wanted the blankets back. This lead to the misperception that the Indians wanted their presents back. That is how the saying: "Indian giver" came into being. Of course the Indians did not give a present, but just the right to use the blanket. TP should also give more clarity about how social media users are authorised to use trademarks.

What is next?
Feedback of trademark holders needs to be incorporated into a more definitive proposal.
Feedback to Danny Friedmann is welcome: ipdragon at gmail dot com

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IP Dragon Speaks on 7th Annual Asia-Pacific IP Forum 2010

September 1, 2010, Stan Abrams of China Hearsay fame, and I will speak on Social Media (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, but also blogs) and intellectual property (especially trademark and copyright) issues, during the 7th Annual Asia-Pacific IP Forum 2010.

There is a lot to say about this subject. If you deem a related subject important or have a great example about this subject matter, please do not hesitate to tell me, so that I will use it in my presentation (ipdragon at gmail dot com).

Last year's event Asia-Pacific Forum was great and this year's event seems very promising. Organised by Managing Intellectual Property and chaired by IP Dragon's friends Peter Ollier, Asia editor of Managing Intellectual Property and Dan Cole, Group Publisher (Asia), Legal Media Group.

Hope to see you there. See the agenda of the two day seminar here.

Picture/Text Danny Friedmann

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