Tao Xinliang,

Director of Intellectual Property Institute of Shanghai University

“Half of a Teacher is a lawyer and half of a scholar a practitioner.” I’ve practiced in the IP field for thirty years. Some people say I am the witness of China’s trademark history. Indeed I am. I’ve seen the development of China’s trademark industry and brand culture from scratch, and from small to large. The Chinese consumers cared more about the price and quality 30 years ago, with little care for the brand and trademark. After 30 years of development, the Chinese consumers are becoming more aware of brand and trademark, both at home and aboard.

However, there still exist quite a few problems for brand and trademark owner to solve. Firstly, from the trademark and brand market perspective, many of them are high-end foreign brand, with a small portion of Chinese well-known brands. Secondly, though China’s total trademark amount is extremely large and the trademark application amount is on the top for 12 years around the world, the goodwill and influence of the Chinese trademark is comparatively low. Thirdly, some Chinese consumers blindly pursuing luxurious brands, which made China becomes the top dumping country of luxurious goods. Fourthly, the well-known trademark granting system was once seriously deviated from its origin purpose.

In a word, the Chinese trademark industry has made great progress with recent years of development, however there still exists some problems and has a lot of room to improve.