To many Chinese consumers, especially those who wear spectacles, the city of Danyang in Jiangsu province is known as "the city of glasses".

But it wasn't until the end of last year that the Danyang Glasses collective mark was approved for local manufacturers and retailers to protect their rights.

Some 2,600 companies and 60,000 employees produce and retail eyeglasses in Danyang, making it the biggest industry in the city. More than 2,800 trademarks have been registered in the sector including eight national well-known trademarks.

Local companies produce one-third of the frames for glasses across the nation as well as about half of the lenses used worldwide, according to the Danyang Glasses Industry Association.

The association first applied for the collective mark in 2007 using Chinese characters and a logo with a phoenix. But the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce rejected the application two years later because the phoenix image looked similar to another trademark.

"The requirements for a collective mark application are strict," said Tang Jinbin, secretary-general of the association. "The mark must be one well recognized among local people that also represents local cultural and social characteristics."

He said that currently most of the collective and certification marks in the nation are for farm produces, not industrial products like glasses.

With support from the city government, the association re-filed the application last year and passed the initial review.

The collective mark will be allowed for use only by members of the association.

"When the mark is acquired, we will join hands with law enforcement to launch legal actions to claim our rights against outside competitors that also use the name of Danyang Glasses," said Tang. "We will not let them confuse consumers with their cheap, poor-quality products."

He added that the association will establish a company to manage the collective mark and will also license it to shops outside Danyang.

The association is planning to set up a purchase consortium for supply and quality control to make sure that more than half of the products sold in licensed stores are made in Danyang.

Identity theft

In a campaign last month in the provincial capital Nanjing, some 70 km west of Danyang, local industry and commerce administration found more than 100 glasses stores tagged as Danyang Glasses or similar names, but none of them had registered the trademark.

According to the Trademark Law, the name of a region above the county level cannot be registered as a trademark unless it is a collective or certification mark.

One of the stores is called Dandanyang Glasses. Its owner told the local newspaper Modern Express that the name was changed "just recently because the old name Danyang Glasses was banned by the authority".

She said some products in her store came from Danyang but others did not.

In another store, a sign saying Danyang Glasses was removed by urban management officials after enforcement officers found that most of the glasses on sale were actually made in Guangdong province.

Jiangsu News Radio quoted Nanjing industry and commerce officials as saying the illegal use of the Danyang Glasses name is "a behavior of unfair competition and cheating the consumers".

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/26/2014 page17)