Concern is growing among Japanese companies about the theft of intellectual property, with many believing that Chinese-based businesses are among the main offenders. According to analysts, the increas…
Concern is growing among Japanese companies about the theft of intellectual property, with many believing that Chinese-based businesses are among the main offenders. According to analysts, the increasing presence of Japanese companies in China is making Japanese products more widely available and hence more vulnerable to intellectual property infringements. In one instance, a Hino Motors Ltd. employee at the Shanghai Motor Show in 2002 noticed a Chinese built mini-bus at the show which was identical to one of Hino“s products – all except for the logo on the vehicle. One of the biggest names in glass has also suffered: the katakana characters for the name of Asahi Glass Co.were recently registered by a Chinese company. Because the katakana characters were regarded as a graphic, and registering graphics is easier than registering characters, the Chinese company registered the katakana version of the Asahi Glass name as a trademark before the Japanese company did. An Asahi Glass official said it had never occurred to them that Asahi“s katakana name would be registered by a Chinese company. Although the Chinese authorities are now co-operating more closely with Japanese manufacturers to pursue offenders and seize goods, the underdeveloped state of the legal framework to protect intellectual property in China is hindering progress. For example, a portion of a design is not recognized as intellectual property, and Japanese companies are being hurt by fake products with similar designs. “They can produce products that have the same image (as our products) by copying a distinctive part of our products,” said an official of Omron Corp. a leading automated control equipment manufacturer. In addition, in China, a company that accuses another of trademark infringement must establish the amount of illegal sales earned by the accused company, making it difficult to file a case with the authorities. The Japanese government has asked China to improve controls of copied products and other intellectual property infringements, but the spread of copycat products in China has not stopped. However, at a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in Los Cabos, Mexico, in October 2002, a Japanese proposal to set up offices in all APEC countries to accept complaints of intellectual property infringements was rejected due to Chinese opposition. The Chinese Patent Office is reportedly holding about 500,000 pending applications. It takes an average of 22 months between the acceptance of an application and the time it is examined, compared with 14.4 months in the USA. Furthermore, some companies distrust the Patent Office. “The Patent Office may not accept an application because it doesn“t have enough employees to make a proper investigation,” one company spokesman commented. However, it had only 1,126 examiners as of 1 April 2003, one-third the number working in the United States. One examiner at the Patent Office screens twice as many applications as a U.S examiner, and three times as many as a European one in 2001.