Dear customers!
Our company has conducted an analytical survey among Russian companies entitled “Immediacy of patenting in the European Union”. Judging by statistics provided by World Intellectual Property Organization, Russia is ranked among other countries with about 38 thousand patent applications. Comparing these numbers to first-placed China’s 1540 thousand applications, the attitude of Russian business to patent services becomes obvious.
|
|
Country |
Number of patent applications |
|
1 |
China |
1 540 000 |
|
2 |
USA |
597 000 |
|
3 |
Japan |
313 000 |
|
4 |
South Korea |
210 000 |
|
5 |
European Union |
174 000 |
|
6 |
Germany |
68 000 |
|
7 |
India |
50 000 |
|
8 |
Russia |
38 000 |
|
9 |
Canada |
36 000 |
|
10 |
Australia |
30 000 |
Over 50 companies representing Russia’s medium and big business took part in the survey.
The survey’s key questions were:
- Why don’t you patent your products and trademark?
- What do you know about patent services?
- What is the reason for your company developing international trade without patenting the trademark and products?
- Do you understand the budget of patent services?
- Do you figure out the risks connected with potential legal proceedings due to the absence of registered patent rights on your trademark and your products?
The answers received to the questions above make it clear that the patent safety factor is mostly ignored.
The patent safety will be taken into account by Russian companies only after the critical mass of lawsuits on trademark and industrial design patent rights will be accumulated.
Let us take a look on this summer’s case study.
Quote:
“Milk factories from Russia are unable to carry on business on Chinese market, DEITA.RU states.
Several dairy factories from Russia are planning to file a class action suit against Chinese company from Mudanjiang. The thing is that this company registered patent rights on their trademarks, so those factories are unable to use the brands of their own while operating on Chinese market.
According to RIA Novosti, in late 2018 Russia and China signed a deal which opened neighboring markets to milk factories. Russian companies received all the approvals only by the year’s end, and in the very beginning of 2019 the Chinese company registered the patent rights on the trademarks.
This is not a one-shot case for Russian companies losing their trademarks in favor of their Chinese partners, and it has always been almost impossible to solve the problem in a benefit for the Russians. This very case is significant due to the fact that the Chinese comrades are acting not just against businessmen from Russia, but against the milk supply deal which is covered by Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance and Chinese General Administration of Customs. Moreover, President Putin gifted General Secretary of China with Russian ice-cream, adds partner of Asia Media Group agency Alexey Simonov.
This trademark appropriating scheme is already well tested by the Chinese business, and not only with the Russians. Here are two basic scenarios. The first one is: some Chinese partner receives exclusive trading rights for a product, which in fact gives him even more brand rights in China than the actual owner has in the country of origin. Initially things may seem to go fine when the collaborative effort is handled as planned, but a while after some controversies the foreigners surprisingly find out they haven’t considered some Chinese legislative details so now they are nobody in the Celestial Empire. The second one: a Chinese company imports a product on its own initiative while the producing company may have no intention of entering the Chinese market. But when the manufacturer decides to enter China, he’ll be surprised to witness his brand already successfully working and there will be nothing to be done about it.
Currently there are just a few success stories of Russian businessmen in China. The general operating approach in the neighboring state reminds of espionage and is based on some business legends like “once upon a time someone sold something to the Chinese comrades and became fabulously wealthy”, tells Alexey Simonov to DEITA.RU.”