经济学人:中国商标:着手解决本土品牌商标侵权纠纷(1)

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when the pink porcine character for toddlers was coopted by unruly Chinese teenagers as a subversive² symbol. 当时这只为学前儿童创作的粉红小猪也成为了难以捉摸的中国青少年叛逆的标志。

But the popular piglet is also the object of another sort of unwanted attention: the registration³ of trademarks⁵ related to the brand by foreign "squatters", 但是这只颇受欢迎的小猪也是另一个不必要关注的主角：和国外“非法占据者”相关的商标注册，

who hope to benefit as counterfeiters or competitors, or to extract a hefty fee when its true owners lay claim to it. 他们希望以伪造者或竞争者的身份分一杯羹，或是当其真正所有者维权时压榨一笔巨款。

The cartoon character's British owners said last month that more than 100 Chinese firms have put in applications for Peppa Pig trademarks, 这个卡通人物的英国所有方表示上个月100多家中国公司发出了小猪佩奇商标的申请，

some made years ago, thus in effect blocking its own. 一些是多年前提交了申请，事实上这阻断了自己的路。

China's "first-to-file" trademark⁴ law (as opposed to the "first-to-use" rule in America and Britain, based on the sale of the good or service in question) means 中国“先申请”商标法（美国和英国执行的是和“先申请”规则相反的法律，基于问题中的商品或服务的销量）意味着

that speedy filings by locals can stop original brand-owners selling in China. Because registrations⁶ are cheap, trademark "trolls" file by the hundred. 本地人即刻进行申请的话就可以阻止品牌原所有者在中国销售该商品。因为注册很便宜，商标申请百元。

Dozens of foreign firms have been stung, from Apple (which paid $60m in 2012 to retrieve⁷ the right to use its iPad trademark in China) to Viagra, 数十家外国公司一直很苦恼，比如苹果（2012年该公司花了6千万美元重新拿回在中国使用其iPad商标的权利）以及万艾可，

for which Pfizer, its American manufacturer, still does not own the Chinese-character mark by which it is best known to Chinese. 这家公司的美国制造商辉瑞至今仍未夺回其中文标志。

Now Chinese brands are finding that they too are increasingly targets of foreign squatters. 现在中国品牌发现他们也逐渐成为了外国侵占者的目标。

An investigation⁸ commissioned by the China Trademark Association (CTA), a lobby group, into around 300 of its best-known members found 游说团体中华商标协会（CTA）对其约300名知名成员的调查发现

that the trademarks of around a third had been squatted⁹, each in around four countries on average. 约有三分之一的商标被侵占，平均约四个国家就有一个。

The 98 brands owned by Vivo, a smartphone-maker, were the most widely affected¹⁰, in 53 countries and regions including America, Brazil, and the EU. 智能手机制造商Vivo所拥有的98个品牌几乎都受到了影响，涉及包括美国、巴西和欧盟在内的53个国家和地区。

Another victim was Hunan China Tobacco Industry, a cigarette brand squatted in 21 places, from Panama to Indonesia. 另一个受害者是湖南中国烟草工业 ，有21个地方，比如巴拿马和印尼都侵用了这个烟草品牌。

The practice is not entirely¹¹ new: the trademark for the biggest brand of traditional Chinese medicine, Tong Ren Tang, 这种做法并不是第一次出现：自20世纪80年代，传统中国中药的最大品牌的商标同仁堂

has been owned by others in Japan, South Korea, America and Europe since the 1980s. 就在日本、韩国、美国和欧洲为其他制造商所有。

But the CTA claims that malicious¹² squatting¹³ of Chinese brands, which are increasingly valuable, has become "professional and large-scale". 但是CTA声称对中国品牌（这些品牌价值都在增加）的恶意侵占已经变得“专业且范围巨大”。

In one case last year dozens of toymakers, chiefly from the Chenghai district of Shantou, in southern Guangdong province, 在去年数十家玩具制造商案件中，主要是在广东省南部澄海区汕头，

learned that an Indian-Chilean toy merchant in Chile had registered over 300 of their trademarks there, resulting in the blocking of some of their products at customs. 据悉智利的一家印度-智利玩具制造商在那里注册了300多个商标，导致他们的一些产品被海关拦截。

Tianjin Wanda Tyre Group, a tyre firm, had refused to give exclusive distribution rights to a Finnish reseller, 轮胎公司—天津市万达轮胎集团拒绝将独家销售交给一位芬兰中间商，

then discovered that its partner had registered Wanda's trademark for its own use in the EU in 2011. 然后该公司发现其合作伙伴于2011年在欧盟注册了该商标并占为己用。

 

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