Government takes New Measurers to Support Time-honored Brands

China has rolled out new measures to promote the country's time-honored brands. Time-honored brands, also known as laozihao in Chinese, are titles granted by the government to domestic brands with a long history. They are seen as the pacesetters of Chinese industrial and commercial development. Our Feng Yilei has more.

China's Ministry of Commerce and four other government departments have released new rules to facilitate the innovative development of the country's time-honored brands and boost national consumption.

New efforts highlight the sustainable development of brand holders.

LI GANG Deputy director general, Circulation Development Dept. Ministry of Commerce "We have updated the definition for time-honored brands. It now refers to those with at least 50-year history, instead of those established before 1956. Therefore, we can foresee that apart more old brands, more new brands popular to the public will become China's time-honored brands and create continuous commercial vitality.

"We have also set up a dynamic management mechanism with entry and exit criteria. So brand holders can no longer simply rest on their past achievements without moving on."

The government is also calling for joint efforts to revive and protect time-honored brands.

Namely, it will further tap into the historical and cultural value of time-honored brands, while stepping up protection of cultural heritages owned by these brands.

Regulations on brand logos and plaques have also been specified.

WANG XIAOHU Deputy director general, Intellectual Property Protection Dept. National Intellectual Property Administration "We will strengthen cooperation and coordination in protecting well-known trademarks when it comes to examination, authorization, enterprise registration, administrative law enforcement, and foreign investment mergers and acquisitions.

"In recent years, China's enterprises have encountered IP problems such as lawsuits overseas, trademarks squatting as they passionately went abroad. The National Intellectual Property Administration and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade have jointly set up the service center for overseas IP disputes and 22 local branches to provide professional guidance."

Every three years, the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant departments will identify a new batch of time-honored brands. There are currently over 1,100 existing China time-honored brands and over 3,000 regional ones. They together generate a revenue of nearly 300 billion U.S. dollars annually.

FENG YILEI Beijing "Chinese authorities say a new set of measures aim to encourage more market players to pursue high-quality development and generate a strong domestic market to better meet people's growing needs. Feng Yilei, CGTN, Beijing."

Source:english-ipraction.samr.gov.cn