Analysis And Suggestions On Intellectual Property Protection Of Exhibitions In China

Since China's accession to the WTO, the exhibition industry has been developing vigorously, and the "exhibition economy" has been formed in an all-round way, increasing at an annual rate of over 20%.

The number of exhibition projects in China is second only to the United States, and the number of exhibition venues in the world is third.

Although the scale of exhibition in China is expanding, there are still many problems in intellectual property protection in China's exhibitions, which need to be emphasized and improved.

Existing problems

For exhibition

At present, China's specific provisions for the protection of intellectual property rights of exhibitions are only the measures adopted by the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and commerce, the State Copyright Administration and the State Intellectual Property Office in 2006.

The protection measures are obviously inadequate for various exhibitions of various names. The organizers can not rely on many specific tort problems and have to "solve them by internal regulations", such as the famous Canton Fair's handling and handling of alleged infringement of intellectual property rights (hereinafter referred to as the "complaint measures").

The introduction of such internal regulations has caused many problems such as the uncertainty of the scope of intellectual property protection, the disunity of complaint settlement procedures and the "law enforcement" standards, and there are still a lot of thorny infringement problems that can not be effectively solved.

The regulations on intellectual property rights protection of exhibitions are of low rank, so it is difficult to link up with other laws and regulations so as to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties concerned.

The protection measures are issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and commerce, the State Copyright Bureau, the State Intellectual Property Office, etc., and belong to the category of departmental rules and regulations.

Compared with many large exhibition industry countries such as Germany, the relevant codes and laws have clearly stipulated the protection of exhibition intellectual property rights.

If the German civil code 940th, 936th and 916ff stipulate the preliminary injunction, if the owner of the right is to start a trade or goods fair at the beginning of the exhibition, it is hoped that a provisional warrant can be obtained in a short period of time, and a preliminary injunction can be applied.

Compared with the exhibition industry countries, China's exhibition intellectual property protection provides a low rank and weak effect, which directly leads to the lack of binding force on the infringement parties, so that repeated infringement and mass infringement of famous products can not be repeated.

Incomplete protection category leads to related rights.

According to the advanced experience and practice of the international exhibition industry, the intellectual property protection of exhibition is not limited to the patent right, trademark right and copyright of the exhibits, but also involves the exhibition name, exhibition logo, booth design and so on.

However, the scope of intellectual property protection of exhibitions in China is not comprehensive, which is out of touch with international practices.

According to the "protection measures", intellectual property protection of exhibitions refers to the protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights in all kinds of economic and technological trade exhibitions, fairs, fairs, trade fairs and exhibitions held in People's Republic of China.

The seventh item of the "complaint handling method" only limits the scope of protection to exhibits, exhibits packaging, publicity materials and other display parts of the booth.

From the related practice of Guangzhou Canton Railway complaint station, the complainants' complaints mainly focus on the patent, trademark and copyright infringement of utility models and designs, and no other complaints.

The incomplete protection scope has led to the fact that some alleged infringement cases can not be effectively regulated, thus damaging the interests of the interested parties.

There are flaws in the procedure and the rights of the parties can not be fully relieved.

The defects of the procedure are mainly reflected in the short defense time and so on. This is the unique issue of the exhibition's intellectual property protection caused by the limitation of the time limit for exhibition. However, the relevant regulations in China are short of pre development complaint handling procedures, so that complaints and processing are concentrated in the exhibition period, which will inevitably lead to many contradictions.

For example, at present, the "complaint method" of the Canton Fair stipulates that only one working day's defense period for a respondent enterprise is contrary to the relevant intellectual property law provisions in China, which leads the organizers to be unable to conduct tort determination, and can only identify "suspected infringement", which directly leads to the lack of effective proof in the legal proceedings of the rights holders.

At the same time, the complainant generally reflects that it is extremely difficult to collect defense materials on a working day, which is not conducive to the protection of the rights of the enterprises being prosecuted. However, if the defense is unfavorable, it will affect the allocation of the booth of the Canton Fair, which is unfair to the respondent enterprises.

There are some difficulties in implementing the relevant provisions on intellectual property protection of exhibitions.

Intellectual property rights infringement in exhibitions usually occurs at the venue of the exhibition, and the intellectual property administration department of the exhibition site shall enforce specific laws during the exhibition period, such as the specific enforcement of the Canton Fair by the intellectual property administrative department of Guangdong province.

Due to the limitation of the exhibition time, a large number of intellectual property rights infringement problems occurred during the exhibition period caused the law enforcement departments to face a lot of difficulties, such as short time, lack of manpower, and difficult implementation.

According to the provisions of the "protection measures", the relevant facts and evidence of the case can be confirmed by the organizer of the exhibition. The intellectual property administrative department of the exhibition shall hand over the intellectual property administrative department with jurisdiction within 15 working days to handle the case according to law.

Due to the fact that the parties involved in the infringement cases are generally located outside the exhibition site, there are difficulties in the pfer from other places, so the cases are often shelved and the relevant provisions can not be carried out.

Cause analysis

China's exhibition economy has a short history. After joining the world trade organization, the exhibition economy has developed rapidly.

The protection of intellectual property rights is the same, and the accession to the WTO has given birth to the relevant laws on intellectual property protection.

Therefore, the exhibition industry and the protection of intellectual property rights are imported products. It takes a period of practice to internalize and conform to the national conditions.

Therefore, the existing problems such as low effectiveness and confusion of enforcement will gradually be solved in the future.

The protection of intellectual property rights is weak.

The significance of the exhibition's intellectual property protection is not only to protect the intellectual property rights of the obligee, but also to know the registration of intellectual property rights through the case complaint handling and related rights search.

However, due to the weak awareness of intellectual property protection, the rights holders only focus on patents. The concept of corporate defense is limited to the existence of prior rights applications, and the relevant evidence, such as contracts and documents, should not be preserved.

At the same time, the concept of intellectual property protection is limited to traditional patent rights, trademark rights, copyright and so on.

Exhibits are low in intellectual property rights and lack of innovation capability in enterprises.

From the representative exhibitions such as Canton Fair, at present, the intellectual property rights of exhibition exhibits in China are relatively low, and patents are not stable.

Most of the exhibits at Canton Fair and other exhibitions only applied for design patents, and the complaints of enterprises at exhibitions were also mainly concentrated on design patents.

According to the relevant provisions of the patent law of China, there is no need for substantive examination of the design patent application. Therefore, the relevant departments may actually issue patent certificates to different subjects on the same or similar designs.

The low intellectual property content of the exhibits highlights the inadequacy of the enterprise's innovation capability. Therefore, the current intellectual property rights disposal of the exhibition is limited to the handling of complaints with low technical content, such as suspected infringing patents. This practice can not reflect the protection of high-level intellectual property rights by the exhibition, and can not lead to a perfect intellectual property protection system.

Related suggestions

Exhibition is a window for enterprises to show their strength and innovation ability. At present, problems such as weak awareness of intellectual property protection and imperfect legislation are urgently needed to be emphasized and improved.

Enterprise training.

Corporate training can be divided into three periods: pre -, post - and post-war.

Before the exhibition, we can refer to the relevant practices of intellectual property protection and avoiding infringement of exhibitors in foreign exhibitions, and the protection proposal of intellectual property rights of exhibitions in UFI (International Exhibition Industry Association), that is, "training exhibitors will protect and register trademarks, patents or designs before the trade fairs, so as to obtain effective rights and be able to make use of all forms of legal protection, no matter during peacetime or during exhibition".

During the exhibition, on-site handling of complaints can be done to enable enterprises to have a personal understanding of intellectual property rights protection and tort handling.

After the exhibition, aiming at the multiple problems that occurred in the products and complaints handling of large area infringement, the pertinent solutions were put forward based on the collation of relevant materials, and training for enterprises was timely.

Drawing on the experience of foreign exhibitions.

In the process of dealing with complaints, we should consider the experience of other countries, such as referring to the practice of "preliminary injunction" by the exhibition industry countries including Germany, and get a ban before the exhibition, so that the infringement can be stopped at the beginning of the exhibition.

We can also refer to the relevant measures such as law, intent and other countries' deterrent acts of infringement by criminal means.

Forming an early warning mechanism.

The more influential intellectual property infringement cases in the exhibition can be compiled or circulate, which can serve as a reference for similar cases in the future, and can also serve as a warning for enterprises.

Perfect relevant laws and regulations, and set up higher level laws and regulations in a timely manner.

In the exhibition practice, we should find out the problems existing in the relevant laws and regulations in time, and make timely positioning of the higher level laws or modify the relevant methods so as to make them operable and conform to the current practice of our exhibition.