Known as China's porcelain capital for its fine porcelain and
marvelous craftsmanship, Jingdezhen city of eastern Jiangxi
Province is taking more companies to court in a
reputation-safeguarding campaign to protect its patents.
"Laws are the best weapons to protect Jingdezhen's intellectual
property rights," said Hong Kemin, presiding judge on intellectual
property rights of the Jingdezhen City Intermediate People's
Court.
"It is undoubtedly a life-or-death war for Jingdezhen to
reviveits glory against patent infringement," Hong said. "Trademark
violation and patent encroachment are the major cause for the
decline of Jingdezhen porcelain during the past years besides
competition."
Since its establishment in October 1999, the intellectual
property rights court in Jingdezhen has handled 130 cases involving
intellectual property rights violations, helping trademark holders
and craftsmen retrieve direct economic losses of some 30 million
yuan (US$3.6 million).
Meanwhile, the applications for patents on ceramic products in
Jingdezhen have increased currently to more than 2,000 every year
from just 60 before 1999, according to the city government's
statistics.
The increasing awareness of the patent and trademark strategy
has even led to the registration of "Jingdezhen", the porcelain
capital's name, as one trademark by the Jingdezhen City Ceramic
Association in 1999.
The association sued Shanghai Guorong Investment Company
recently for intellectual property rights infringement, saying the
company's organization of a ceramic products commodities fair in
name of Jingdezhen porcelain early this year in Singapore and
Cambodia had damaged its trademark rights.
"This row over the trademark of 'Jingdezhen' is just tip of the
iceberg as the concept of intellectual property rights has been
aroused in the city," said Hong Kemin.
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2003)