The dispute between Hisense Corporation and German Bosch-Siemens Corporation over the "HiSense" trademark is becoming increasingly furious and the two firms will confront each other at a German court on Apr.14. Many scholars from the intellectual property circle and officials with the Ministry of Commerce and other departments concerned, in
Beijing on Feb. 24, held the "Symposium on safeguarding the legal rights of Chinese trademarks overseas".
Experts participating in the symposium pointed out that certain foreign enterprises were setting up trade barriers through rush trademark registrations, in an attempt to block the entry of Chinese enterprises into the international market. Therefore, it is highly necessary for Chinese enterprises to take strong precautions against this move.
Trademark disputes enter legal procedures
At the end last year, Bosch-Siemens Corporation took legal proceedings against Chinese Hisense Corporation at Cologne Local Court in Germany, and the Chinese firm decided to respond to prosecutions. In retaliation, Hisense Corporation on Dec. 3, 2004 demanded German Trademark Bureau to rescind the "HiSense" trademark registered by Bosch-Siemens according to law. After consultation proved ineffective, the two parties finally entered the legal procedures.
Hisense Corporation made it clear that the "HiSense" trademark was initiated by it in 1992, was registered on Dec. 14, 1993 and was officially used as trademark and corporate name in the same year. On Jan. 5, 1999, the "HiSense" or "Hai Xin" trademark was officially identified as a well-known trademark by the Trademark Bureau under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
However, six day later on Jan. 11, 1999, Bosch-Siemens Corporation, a joint venture of German Siemens and Bosch, applied for "HiSense" as the registered trademark for its own commodities, and also applied for Madrid International Trademark Registration and European Economic Community Trademark Registration in the same year. Additionally, it also asked for priority, which completely blocked Hisense Corporation's trademark registration in Europe.
Guo Qingcun, vice-president of Hisense Corporation, revealed that the other party once offered a trademark transfer price as high as 40 million euros, and showed no sincerity in solving disputes through negotiation. HiSense held that Bosch-Siemens had the vicious intention to hastily register its trademark. "The sole objective of Bosch-Siemens' rush registration of Chinese trademarks is to prevent Chinese competitors from entering Europe and other related areas.
With regard to the trademark disputes with Chinese Hisense, Wang Junyan, spokesperson with Siemens Corporation (China region), noted that they are collecting related materials and so it is impossible to comment on it at the moment.
Rush registration of Chinese Trademarks overseas reaches its peak
The encounter of HiSense is not an isolated case. It is reported that Osram, a subsidiary company of Siemens, has registered the "FIREFLY" trademark of Donglin Company under
Xiamen Energy-Saving Enterprises, and the trademarks of five lamps and lanterns enterprises such as
Shanghai Dais, Zhongqing
Qingdao Branch,
Shanghai Aoliwei,
GuangZhou Huizhixing as well as
Foshan Lighting have also been registered by Siemens.
Incomplete statistics show that 80-plus Chinese trademarks have been registered by Indonesia, nearly 100 by Japan, and almost 200 by Australia. The cases of Chinese trademarks, particularly famous ones, being quickly registered by overseas enterprises have exceeded 100 annually, which cover wide-ranging fields of cosmetics, beverage, household appliances, garments as well as culture.
Experts mentioned that the rush registration of Chinese trademarks by overseas enterprises had reached its peak, with renowned, well-known trademarks and protected products of origin as the hot items.
The lack of precautious awareness
Why did the cases of Chinese trademarks registered by foreign enterprises occur one after another? Liu Buchen, an expert on household appliances, answered the question by asking: Why couldn't Hisense Corporation register its own trademarks first in those countries that it would possibly enter in the future? Is it that at the beginning it did not at all have the idea? Or did it simply think that registration of trademarks overseas was useless? The fact that it is only till today, five years afterwards, that Hisense Corporation raised the question of trademark right, shows its lack of foresight or an international vision. And this is precisely the problem widely existing among Chinese enterprises.
The material from State Intellectual Property Office has confirmed Liu's viewpoint: Of the trademarks of 100-odd name brand products announced in 2002, nearly 50 percent were not registered in the US and Canada, and almost 80 percent were not registered in Australia.
According to Prof. Liu Chuntian, director of Intellectual Property Teaching and Research Center under Renmin University of China, said, "Our property right and brand awareness remains to be enhanced, and if you don't take the intellectual property market, others will take it". Researcher Huang Hui with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences remarked, "Those Chinese enterprises ready to go overseas should have precautious awareness and the case of HiSense serves as a lesson for other enterprises".
Zhang Zhicheng, a staff member with the State Intellectual Property Office, stresses that along with the development of economic globalization and the quickening steps of Chinese enterprises advancing toward the international market, disputes over intellectual property are unavoidable, and will probably increase in number within a period of time.
