About 60 people attended the event, which was organised in partnership with the China Trademark Association (CTA). It was held at the Westin Beijing and conducted in Chinese.
Peter Wild of Wildpeak, who is a member of the MARQUES Council, welcomed delegates on behalf of MARQUES. He said: “The presentations were clearly relevant and detailed. You could hear a pin drop during the speeches, and there were a lot of questions during the Q&A section.”
Julia Zhong of Lee and Li – Leaven IPR Agency Ltd, Chair of the MARQUES China Team, said the audience were particularly interested in presentations by two judges, Mr Yongqing Qiu, Deputy Presiding Judge of the Guangdong High Court, and Ms Xiaojin Zhang, Chief Judge in the Second Trial Division of the Beijing IP Court. “Both of them gave valuable insights into important IP cases in China,” said Julia.
Judge Mr Qiu discussed recent trade mark infringement cases, notably one involving Louis Vuitton which complained about an advertisement for a shopping mall that featured a model with a Louis Vuitton bag. In this case, the Court found there was no infringement as the bag was only part of the picture, alongside the model, clothes, shoes etc and therefore the use did not amount to use as a trade mark.
Judge Ms Zhang summarised the litigation involving Michael Jordan, in which the court found that the Chinese character mark had well-known status in China and directly referred to the famous basketball player, but the mark QIAODAN (Chinese phonetic alphabet) did not.
Another topic discussed by Judge Ms Zhang was how compensation is calculated: a new development is that the courts have taken into account royalty information when calculating damages.
“These presentations covered very important cases, and explained clearly the reasons for them and the facts behind the judgments,” said Julia.
In the afternoon sessions, three speakers from the SAIC discussed, respectively, examination on trade mark application, opposition and appeals/invalidation.
The speakers provided examples of sound marks that have been registered and others that have been rejected in China as well as discussing recent changes to the opposition and appeal systems.
The final presentations of the day were from Spring Chang of Chang Tsi & Partners and Jiangfeng Yu, Head of IP at ThyssenKrupp (China). Among the topics they discussed were the benefits of bringing cases in different jurisdictions and practical experiences of IP protection in China.
“I’m delighted that MARQUES was able to put on this innovative event,” said Peter. “A lot of work went into planning it, and getting the necessary authorisations, and a lot of credit is due to Julia and her team for putting it together.”
Issue 084
The 
WIPO has announced that Madrid Monitor becomes the only tool for tracking international trade mark applications or registrations, and a new version of the 11th edition of the Nice Classification will enter into force