Schneider benefits from China's strengthened support

By Zhang Zhao | China Daily | Updated: 2016-05-18 07:55

Schneider Electric has witnessed increasingly intensified and active intellectual property protection in China, and found the Chinese authorities have made innovative attempts in such protection, a senior executive of the company said at a news conference on May 12.

Zhou Yu, vice-president and general counsel of Schneider China, said the time of "quality consumption" has arrived in China.

"With a commitment to innovation and sustainable development, Schneider will cooperate with other companies, industry associations and government agencies to foster a healthy consumption climate by protecting IP," he said.

Schneider trademarks were involved in three of the 2015-16 top 10 practice cases in IP protection and model cases bridging administrative and judicial IP enforcement, selected by the Quality Brands Protection Committee of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

One of the cases, heard last year in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, was a successful civil litigation in addition to a prior criminal ruling that was already in force, to increase compensation for the rights owner and the penalty for the infringers.

Considering the long period of infringement and large amount of illegal revenue, the court awarded 500,000 yuan ($76,690) in compensation to Schneider and another 200,000 yuan to make up the company's "reasonable costs" in defending its rights.

"Usually costs are included in the compensation but, in this case, we separated the cost as an independent entry to show our support for the rights owner that spent much energy defending its rights," said Zheng Ye, deputy director of Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court's IP division.

In another case, Schneider filed complaints against about 50 companies in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, for using Schneider or its Chinese translation in their names.

Lai Liying, an official from the Shenzhen Enterprises Registration Office, said the regulation for company names was made some 30 years ago, which is no longer appropriate for some emerging problems. In addition, the terms in the regulation for company names are vague, resulting in many disputes.

Under mediation by the office, nine companies named in the complaints agreed to change their names this year. Some others were listed as "companies with abnormal operations", because the office could not contact them, and others were ordered to change their names, and will be listed if they fail to comply.

No business applications from the companies on the list will be handled except for the changing of their names.

In addition, the office recognized Schneider Electric as a well-known enterprise, so companies in the future cannot apply for a name using Schneider or its Chinese translation unless they have authorization from Schneider Electric.

"This case was an example of how to stop and prevent free-riding on famous brands by fighting against existing infringers and avoiding future ones," Lai said.