If you were setting up a business in China, you might think that names such as “Harry Potter”, “007” or “MacKFC”, would be fantastic for new products or services, and you would probably be thrilled to discover that they haven’t been registered as trademarks.

In the past, you may have gotten away with registering such trademarks, but if you use any of these names after March 1, you will quickly find yourself in trouble. On that date, a regulation regarding trademark protection will come into force to prevent companies from riding on the coattails of well-known brands.

The regulation, issued by the Supreme People’s Court, the nation’s top legal chamber, took three years to formulate. It stipulates that well-known characters, including those in books and movies, who are protected by copyright law cannot be used as trademarks by any entity that does not hold the copyright, unless they have been granted specific permission.

To help courts at all levels to implement the new regulation nationwide, details of five rulings handed down by the Supreme People’s Court in recent years have been issued as legal precedents.

In 2011, one of the benchmark lawsuits was decided in favour of Danjaq LLC, the producer of the James Bond movies, which brought litigation against a Chinese condom producer that had used the Chinese characters for “James Bond, 007” and the name in English on the logo for its products.

The company, called “Bangde 007” in pinyin, the romanized form of Chinese, and pronounced “Band 007”, argued that its “Bongde 007 Bond” trademark had been approved in 2002 by the trademark review and adjudication board at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Moreover, it was being used for a category of goods wholly unrelated to the fictional character or the movies.

The Beijing High People’s Court ruled that the company had violated the “principle of good faith” required under China’s trademark law when a trademark is registered.

In addition, the prior right (or copyright) of the James Bond character had long been established, and trademarks are not allowed to infringe on an existing right, according to the court.

Stipulations

“The application for registration and the use of a trademark shall be made in good faith” was written into an amendment to the trademark law, which took effect in May 2014.

The amendment also stipulated that attempts to register a trademark would not be approved if the name infringes on a prior right or is regarded as a malicious application of an unregistered trademark that has been used by another entity.

“The amended law can be seen as a turning point in trademark protection in China, after which there has been a discernible shift towards greater protection for brand owners”, said Edward Chatterton, a Hong Kong-based partner at the international law firm, DLA Piper.

Trademark approval offices and the courts have been more willing to rule on grounds of bad faith in cases of trademark piracy and invalidate maliciously registered trademarks, Chatterton said.

A guidebook issued by the Beijing High People’s Court in January 2014 makes it clear that copyright is one of the prior rights mentioned in the amendment to the law.

Song Xiaoming, head of the civil division of the Supreme People’s Court, said the name of a work of art and characters associated with it are not usually protected by Chinese copyright law.

However, works and characters that have attained a certain level of popularity carry a significant commercial value, which generates a legal right that should be protected, he said.

The regulation declared protection of the title of a work and the characters in it as trademarks, which demonstrates the top court’s stance in encouraging honesty and integrity in business operations, he added.

Meanwhile, the Supreme People’s Court has urged all courts to avoid overprotection of titles and characters, and protection should not be extended to those regarded as being fully in the public domain.

In recent years, the number of lawsuits related to trademark protection has risen rapidly at courts across the country, especially since 2011, when the courts were given the final say on trademark disputes instead of the trademark review and adjudication board at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and its branches.

In 2015, more than 24,000 trademark cases were filed in courts across the country in 2015, a rise of 13 per cent from the previous year, according to the latest annual report on the protection of intellectual property rights, published by the State Intellectual Property Office.

Case numbers rise

According to statistics from the top court, more than 2,600 trademark cases were heard by the Beijing High People’s Court between 2002 and 2009. In 2013, the number rose to 2,161, and in 2014, the court heard nearly 8,000 such cases.

In 2015, more than 7,500 cases were filed at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, which was founded in November 2014-73 per cent of them were related to trademarks, in addition to patent and copyright cases.

“The clear aim of the Chinese government, transmitted through the administrative bodies and courts throughout the country, is to deter trademark squatting and trademark infringement”, Chatterton said.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” he added, saying that he hopes the courts will require all parties in litigation to disclose a larger number of relevant documents in trademark cases to make it easier for trademark holders to prove the damage that has resulted from the infringement.

In addition to judicial efforts to strengthen the protection of trademarks, administrative organs at all levels have joined forces to tackle the problems involved in trademark registration, and reduce the risks of infringement.

Wang Lianjie, head of the Intellectual Rights Infringement Complaint Center in Beijing, said the application of trademark right, copyright and patent right, which together constitute intellectual property rights, is under the jurisdiction of three administrative departments.

For example, trademark registration has to be approved by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and its branches, instead of the State Intellectual Property Office and its branches, she said.

She added that a pilot programme has been launched to simplify government administration and better protect the three rights in Shanghai, which are now being overseen by the local Intellectual Property Bureau.

“It is international practice to grant one government entity, instead of three of them, the authority to oversee the protection of the three types of rights because they are closely related to each other. The initiative in Shanghai will be extended to other regions of the country as well as to the administration at the central government level,” Wang said.

Taipei – The disappearance of a Chinese billionaire from his Hong Kong hotel has brought back frightening memories for bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who also went missing in an ordeal that highlighted Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.

Lam is one of five Hong Kong publishers who vanished at the end of 2015 and resurfaced across the border in mainland China. He returned to Hong Kong on bail after eight months in detention and refuses to go back.

The booksellers’ case sparked international outrage and fuelled concern that Beijing is threatening the semi-autonomous city’s freedoms.

Those fears were reignited last month when Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua disappeared from his apartment at the Four Seasons hotel, with reports he was snatched by mainland security agents. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Lam says both he and Xiao were political targets.

“It is 100 percent certain the Communist Party is behind it,” he said in an interview in Taipei, where he was visiting a book fair.

Lam and the other four booksellers were known for publishing salacious titles about the Chinese leadership and ran a store stocked with books banned over the border.

In Xiao’s case, there is widespread speculation that he has been caught up in an anti-corruption drive by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which some critics believe has been a tool to target his political opponents.

The Xiao incident has renewed Lam’s fears about remaining in Hong Kong.

“Yes, I worry (about my safety). Every Hong Kong person should worry,” the 62-year-old told AFP.

But he added: “I love Hong Kong. I want to stay in Hong Kong. I will never leave. I will speak out even if it means going to jail.” .

Lam was allowed back to Hong Kong last June on condition that he pick up a hard disc listing bookstore customers and return to the mainland.

Instead he skipped bail and went public to tell an explosive story of how he was blindfolded by mainland police after crossing the border, and interrogated for months.

Hong Kong has a separate legal system under the “one country, two systems” deal struck when Britain returned the city to China in 1997 and is not obliged to hand Lam back even if he is violating the terms of his bail.

Lam says he became suicidal during his detention and daily life is still not easy.

He wears a face mask to help shield his identity and alternates between the eight entrances to the residential complex where he lives.

While visiting Taiwan last week, he was protected by police security after pro-Beijing protesters attempted to attack prominent Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong during a recent trip to the island.

Lam says he is no longer involved in the book trade, but writes columns for local Hong Kong media on a voluntary basis.

There are still moments when his time in detention comes back to haunt him.

He told AFP he was spooked on spotting a plain-clothes policeman waiting for him at Taipei airport on his arrival.

“I thought he could be a mainland security agent,” Lam says.

Three of the other booksellers who were detained have been freed, but Lam says he is not in touch with them out of concern for their safety, believing they are still under surveillance.

The fifth bookseller Gui Minhai – who disappeared in Thailand – is still in detention.

But while Lam may have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life, he says in some ways the trauma of his detention has made it easier to cope with its aftermath.

“When one loses freedom, and then regains it, any problem one faces after that will seem small,” he told AFP.

“I just kept thinking about what I went through, which was hundreds, thousands of times worse than this.”

Bangkok – Babies dressed as cupids, underwater weddings and a government vitamin giveaway to encourage procreation were all part of Thailand’s imaginative and bizarre events Tuesday to mark Valentine’s Day.

The Land of Smiles embraces February 14 like few other countries in Southeast Asia, with Bangkok awash with pop-up flower stalls and a roster of romantic gestures unfurling across the country.

The junta government led the love-in, doling out heart-shaped boxes of free iron and folic acid supplements in a bid to help healthy pregnancies and stimulate the kingdom’s birthrate.

“In 1970, a family had an average of six children but now it’s 1.6,” Wachira Pengjuntr, director-general of the Department of Health, told AFP.

“In the past people ate better food, more vegetables and fruits but now lifestyles have changed… so we want to encourage more births.” In the southern tourist hotspot of Trang, couples were offered the opportunity to marry underwater – in full wedding dress and diving gear – in an annual publicity stunt aimed at boosting visitor numbers.

And babies at one Bangkok maternity ward were dressed up with wings to resemble the god of love.

Even Thailand’s fractious political arena, a stage more accustomed to the delivery of brickbats than bouquets, could not escape Cupid’s arrow.

In a widely trailed “Day of Love”, the junta opened reconciliation talks with some political players in an effort to bridge a decade of conflict that has seen two democratic governments upended by coups.

Thailand’s normally stern Prime Minister Prayut Cha-O-Cha was also in an affectionate mood following a poll saying just over half the country wanted to give him flowers for Valentine’s Day.

“I have love for everyone – all 70 million Thais every day – not only on Valentine’s Day. I have roses for you everyday. Thank you,” he told reporters.

Thai polling data is often criticised as politically slanted.

Still the junta’s unbridled passion for Valentine’s Day was a contrast to more po-faced approaches in previous years – in 2015 the generals urged young people to have a special meal or visit temples instead of having sex.

It would take 12 years for a young Hong Kong couple earning a joint income of HK$60,000 (S$11,000) a month to save up for the down payment of a 450 sq ft flat which costs HK$6 million.

Rising property prices have made the dream of owning a home even more remote for many young families, said chief executive hopeful Carrie Lam yesterday as she laid out plans to help more young people own a home.

Mrs Lam said she hopes to do so by building affordable “starter homes” for middle-class families.

These will be priced above those under the current home ownership scheme, but will come under the private market, she said.

She also plans to expand the subsidised home ownership scheme so that those whose economic conditions have improved can move on to own a flat and vacate public rental units meant for those on the waiting list.

There are about 280,000 families in the queue for a public rental flat.

Many had looked to incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying to solve the city’s housing woes after he pledged to make it his top priority when he took office in 2012.

Instead, property prices soared to new highs, resulting in more discontent in the city and driving thousands of young people to join the student-led Occupy movement primarily to fight for greater rights to elect the city’s leader.

At a press conference yesterday, Mrs Lam, 59, Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official, made it clear that improving living conditions, investing more in education and implementing a new tax system to improve Hong Kong’s competitiveness remain her top priorities.

She did not address concerns over political reform and national security issues, which were raised by her rivals. She said she would do so at a later stage.

Former finance chief John Tsang, former security chief Regina Ip and retired judge Woo Kwok Hing have also announced their candidacies.

Mrs Lam said her full manifesto will be out only in the first half of next month.

She attributed the delay to her new style of governance, in which she vowed to listen to all sectors of the community so as to implement effective measures.

To lighten the burden of small and medium-sized enterprises, Mrs Lam said she would reduce the tax rate for firms with an annual profit of less than HK$2 million from 16.5 per cent to 10 per cent.

Pledging to increase government spending on education by HK$5 million each year, she said the goal is to “nurture our young people to be responsible members of society, with a sense of their nation and a love for Hong Kong”.

joycel@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 14, 2017.
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Taipei – Distraught relatives in Taiwan gathered to mourn their loved ones on Tuesday after a bus carrying elderly local tourists flipped on its side and left 33 dead in one of the island’s worst ever road accidents.

The group of 44 people had been returning from a trip to see seasonal cherry blossoms at a farm in central Taichung region when their bus veered off a highway on Monday night on the outskirts of Taipei.

Television footage showed the top of the bus ripped off, with occupants tossed onto the roadside.

The latest victim died Tuesday morning after suffering multiple injuries and internal bleeding, Wanfang Hospital said, bringing the toll to 33.

The accident came after a bus fire last July killed 25 Chinese holidaymakers and is the latest in a series of deadly incidents that have tarnished Taiwan’s safety record.

Police are investigating whether the bus was speeding at the time, according to reports.

Dashcam footage reported to be from a vehicle behind the bus shows it turning off the main highway onto an adjoining road. It then flipped over, leaving behind a mangled pile of metal, cleared later by cranes.

Passengers were asleep at the time of the crash and one survivor said it was “hell.” “The bus was lopsided when it was passing the turn and people were waking up and screaming,” 54-year-old Hsiao Shiu-hua told the China Times.

Relatives returned to the scene of the accident Tuesday to perform a religious ritual to appease the dead. They threw banknotes towards the slope where the bus crashed and chanted prayers.

Family members, some in tears, also gathered at a Taipei funeral parlour where some of the bodies are being held, with one of the relatives saying the tour agency that organised the trip should “take responsibility” for the disaster.

Some reports said the driver of the bus had been working for 14 hours straight.

But Ringo Lee of the Travel Agent Association of Taiwan said the driver had had “sufficient rest” before taking the group to the popular scenic area of Wuling.

The driver had two outstanding traffic violations, including one for not wearing a seatbelt, but no drunk-driving record, according to the transport ministry.

Lee added that the 19-year-old bus was a “high-class vehicle” and the ministry said it was due for a check in April.

An investigation into last year’s fatal bus inferno outside Taipei found the driver had intentionally set fire to it in a suicide bid before it veered into a crash barrier.

Earlier this month, 21 Chinese tourists suffered injuries after their bus rammed into a railway bridge in southern Taiwan.