China ranks sixth in int'l trademark registry applications

China became the world's sixth largest applicant for international trademark registry this year, up one place from 2010, a deputy director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said Tuesday.

The country is the among the world's most active applicants in terms of the number of applications, said Wang Binying, the deputy director general.

The WIPO received a total of 39,687 applications worldwide in 2010. Among them, 1,928 came from China, up 42.2 percent year-on-year, the second fastest increase worldwide after the Republic of Korea, Wang said at the 4th China Trademark Festival being held in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Meanwhile, China's domestic trademark registry applications are also rapidly increasing, with the number of applications exceeding 1.4 million so far this year, according to Wang.

Wang said this reflects the steadily rising comprehensive national strength of China and its strong economic growth. It also shows that the government has made substantial progress in intellectual property rights protection.

Despite the massive number of Chinese trademark applications, the country lacks well-recognized trademarks. "Actually, we cannot yet name a truly internationally-recognized Chinese brand," said Zhang Yumin, an intellectual property rights researcher with the Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

Meanwhile, trademark protection is not adequate in the country, said Yuan Qi, an official with the Trademark Department of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Yuan said this has led to rampant trademark rights violations.

Zhang urged enterprises to form specialized departments for managing intellectual property rights and to actively register their trademarks.

The government should also crack down on trademark violations and punish the parties involved, Zhang said.