Chinese domestic enterprises have a long way to go in IPR protection

“With the growing reputation of Chinese domestic brands in the world, the counterfeits thereof frequently appeared in customs,” an official from Qingdao Dagang Customs told the reporter. Meanwhile, it was noticed that fewer Chinese famous enterprises filed IPR protection applications to the Customs, showing that domestic businesses have a long way to go in respect of IPR protection.

According to the statistics released by Qingdao Customs, cases related to the infringement of Chinese domestic brands increased surprisingly. The goods involving the violation of the indigenous intellectual property rights of Chinese enterprises accounted for 19% of all the seizures and the value of the counterfeiting also took up 15.5% of the total value.

It is understood that the consciousness of business to protect their IPRs is still weak. In Qingdao City of Shandong Province, only 22 enterprises by far submitted to the Customs merely 300 IPR protection recordation applications. Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. filed its IPR recordation applications as late as 2006. In Yiwu City of Zhejiang Province, only 29 enterprises recorded their IPRs in the Customs and 18 businesses of them submitted IPR protection recordation later than 2009. The number for the whole country is even pessimistic. Up to now, more than 11,000 domestic and foreign businesses recorded their IPRs in the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, IPRs checked by the General Administration of Customs were more 21,000, approximately 50% owned by Chinese domestic enterprises.

“An IPR recordation only costs enterprises over 800 yuan, and over 40 Customs across the country can help enterprises to wave a IPR border protection net to supervise infringing goods, why not make recordation?” the official with Qingdao Dagang Customs said.