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Right to know
By BAO WANXIAN (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-24 07:20
BMW this month filed a complaint in a Frankfurt court against the Chinese
Automobile manufacturer Shuanghuan for pirating its design patent. It
claims that Shuanghuan's SUV, which was shown at the Frankfurt Auto
Exhibition, is almost identical to BMW's X5 model.
The suit poses a challenge to Chinese exhibitors' push into the
international exhibiting world, not because of quality or lack of trade
partners, but because it accuses the company of pirating the intellectual
property.
A new service provided by the Chinese Group Organizers & Exhibitors and
Koelnmesse Co, one of the biggest exhibition firms in the world, aims to
reduce piracy and boost intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for
Chinese exhibitors.
"China is the largest exhibitor at German local exhibitions. More than
3,500 Chinese companies participate in Koelnmesse trade shows in Cologne
every year," says Herbert Marner, acting CEO of Koelnmesse Co.
"The increases in overseas exhibitions make Chinese productions play an
important part in the international trade market. Because of higher
quality and competitive prices, Chinese exhibitors are always more
competitive."
"However, many foreign companies are highly aware of protecting their
intellectual rights and are reluctant to accept IPR piracy by Chinese
companies in their own markets," says Zhu Meiting, a lawyer for
Koelnmesse Co.
Lacking IPR awareness, many Chinese companies have difficulties
confronting the challenges.
Marner believes the key to overseas exhibitions is a fair competition
environment. So new services for participants at Koelnmesse trade fairs
in Cologne will establish a fair platform and help clients from China
strengthen the capability of facing IPR difficulties.
In line with the agreement, they also aim to establish an information
pool, not only by gathering translators both from home and abroad, but
also offering law services.
Translation is a barrier when facing IPR challenges from foreign
companies, according to Zhu.
Facing the warning letters and interim bans made by German courts, many
Chinese companies cannot respond because of language problems.
On the other hand, the information pool will offer high standard law
services to the exhibitors and support them to enhance IPR protection
awareness. The service group, including professional lawyers and officers
from the government, can consult the exhibitors to deal with warning
letters correctly and timely.
When Chinese companies receive warning letters, most of them do not know
how to deal with them. Some of them choose to cancel the exhibitions,
while others put the letters aside.
"By this means, it is equal to admitting piracy. If you ignore the
warning letter, the appealing side can apply for preliminary injunction
or take court action. And if you ignore the court injunction and show the
same products the next time, you will be punished for breaching the
injunction," Zhu says, adding that the fine can be up to 250,000 euros.
"We believe that Chinese exhibitors can protect their IPR rights better
and get satisfactory results, when facing unfair IPR accusations," Zhu
says, emphasizing that IPR awareness is a prerequisite element for
self-protection.
In addition, Chinese and German governments have made efforts to
strengthen cooperation on IPR protection across a wide scope for years.
The Eighth Sino-German Legal cooperation forum is to be held in Germany
today and tomorrow. The forum attracted a group of lawyers, government
officers and corporate executives from both China and Germany, who will
exchange information and ideas on IPR issues in a bid to provide
administrative and professional supports to companies.
Thanks to the great efforts, the number of Chinese companies facing IPR
accusations has been reduced recently and more Chinese companies are
using legal tools actively to protect themselves on IPR issues.
(China Daily 09/24/2007 page9)
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