A total of 18,130 trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases including 2,451 foreign related cases were dealt with in the first half of this year by China's administrative authorities for industry and commerce (AICs) at all levels throughout the country, said a senior Chinese official in Beijing on Monday.

Li Dongsheng, vice minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), said both the number of trademark infringement cases and the number of foreign related trademark infringement cases dealt with increased by 13.4 percent and 55.8 percent respectively compared with the same period last year.

In 2004, AICs dealt with 40,171 trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, 51.66 percent more than in 2003, out of which 5,401 were related to foreign trademarks, 158 percent more than in 2003. Ninety-six cases and 82 suspects were transferred to the criminal justice departments for adjudication.

Li said that from the second half of 2004, the SAIC has reinforced the protection of foreign trademarks in the areas of trademark opposition, dispute and administration. Thirty of these have been defined as "well known." Among them, there were 13 trademarks from the United States, five from France, three from the Netherlands, two from Britain, two from Switzerland, two from Japan, one from Germany, one from Italy, and one from the British Virgin Islands.

Protection offered by AICs on the rights and interests of trademark owners at home and abroad has not only contributed to the development of China's economy and trademark cause, but has also attracted the registration of more foreign trademarks here.

In 1983, China's annual trademark applications for registration were less than 20,000, and among which only 1,687 were foreign applications.

By 2004, the number of applications had reached 588,000, 60,000 of which were foreign trademarks. This put China in fourth place in terms of annual applications behind the US, Japan and Germany with 13,343, 11,945 and 5,961 applications respectively.

By the end of June, China's accumulated number of registered trademarks had reached 2.37 million, among which 422,000 were foreign trademarks from 129 countries.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon July 12, 2005)