The invitation to speak arose following a meeting with the China Trademark Association earlier this year. Sebastien took part in a session on brand internationalization and strategies for trade marks. He gave his perspective on the importance of global brand protection from the point-of-view of a company which has 80% of its sales in China.
One particular issue he addressed was the difficulty foreign trade mark owners face in getting well-known trade mark recognition in China. To date, only 10% of marks recognized as well known are foreign.
The MARQUES delegation also took part in informal discussions during the week-long event, which was attended by more than 2,000 people, and during the high-level opening reception with the vice-minister of the SAIC.
It is expected that MARQUES will become a regular participant in the China Trademark Festival in the future.
Sebastien reports:
The Congress takes place in a context in which for the first time, two Chinese brands have entered the Global top 100 of brands (HUAWEI, LENOVO).
Chinese companies are expanding their brands to the world. So they want to learn about the strategies to do so. On our side, we are obviously interested in obtaining a better protection of our brands in China, and the Chinese understand very well that this only works if reciprocity is guaranteed.
China has been making huge efforts to improve their legal system to give a better level of protection granted to brands, both Chinese and foreign ones.
The congress impressed by its size. Much bigger than what we expected, and also much more international than we thought, with many Americans and Europeans participating this year.
Top Chinese law firms, Chinese enforcement officials and judges were attending. A delegation of the SAIC of each province was there, also vice-ministers and a vice-chairman of the National Congress.
We gathered a lot of ideas and will follow-up on them with the team. We have identified new strategies which we will need to explore, as recommended by many people we talked to here.
Issue 058
Recent developments in the Madrid System include changes following the accession of Algeria, an upcoming seminar and a meeting of the Madrid Working Group
