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Jiangsu: Trademark traction up value chain

Updated: 2010-07-28 16:40

The authorities of Jiangsu are seeking to increase the quality and value of the province’s businesses through a trademark strategy, according to a top government official for commerce and industry.

“A trademark’s role in contemporary economic life has changed fundamentally from serving as just a mark to distinguish a product from its competitors like before,” She Yihe, chief of the Jiangsu Administration for Industry and Commerce, told China Daily in a recent interview.

“Now it is an important means for a company to compete with rivals and a way for a regional economy to improve its competitive edge and increase its overall economic influence,” he said.

With 37 newcomers in the ranks of nationally well-known trademarks in the first half of this year, Jiangsu’s total of 173 is now second among all provincial economies in the nation, up from third last year.

As formulated by the commerce and industry administration, the provincial government has made the trademark strategy a key part of the effort that began in 2005 to transform the local economy to make it more eco-friendly and sustainable.

In contrast to the previous economic model that relied heavily on consumption of natural resources, the new approach focuses on technological advancements, improvements in the quality of the workforce and innovation in management, She said.

“Brands and innovations are complementary to each other — overseas practice shows that nations with successful trademark strategies tend to have an edge in innovation,” he said. “Trademarks play a crucial role in stimulating companies to maintain good faith and apply various kinds of intellectual property.”

Implementation of the strategy is expected to promote trademark registration, management, application and protection while inspiring interest in innovation that improves the value of company trademarks, he added.

Home to a host of dynamic private companies, Jiangsu is strong in both production and R&D.

Yet due to weak awareness about branding, some local operations have continued as long-term licensed manufacturers for other trademarks and languish at the low end of the industrial chain. “With the trademark strategy we are encouraging companies to advance up the industrial chain,” he said.

In 2009 alone, officials from the industry and commerce administration visited nearly 100,000 companies to brief them on support policies such as securing bank loans using trademarks as collateral and helped to formulate corporate branding strategies.

“We encourage local companies to go abroad and establish international brands and at the same time aid them in overseas trademark disputes,” She said. Fighting infringement to ensure a fair environment has long been a priority in the strategy.

As well-known trademarks tend to be the target of infringement, the industry and commerce administration pays close attention to high-profile products and cracks down hard on counterfeits, She said.

An office for information exchange and protection between the administrative force and the courts, the first of its kind in the nation, has been established. The province is also enhancing regional collaboration with nearby provinces along the Huaihai sea and joined in the Yangtze River Delta trademark supervision network.

With an export-oriented economy, Jiangsu is home to a great number of foreign-invested companies, so “in pursuit of alike treatment, we offer protection to both domestic and foreign trademarks”, She said.

Various levels of the administration investigated 91 foreign-related infringement cases last year, more than half of which were initiated by law enforcement agencies.

Cooperation with various countries and regions including Japan, Germany and Hong Kong — as well as hosting seminars and increasing cooperation with foreign companies — has helped foreign investors gain more understanding of Jiangsu’s trademark enforcement and boosted their confidence in the province, She said.