Over 32m Chinese trade marks will be available online in Europe

OVER 32 million registered Chinese trade marks are now available online under the TMview one-stop shop in Europe.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) officially launched the inclusion of Chinese trade marks into TMview, the EUIPO said in a statement.

An intense technical cooperation between the EU and China intellectual property offices following an agreement on exchange of

IP information in September 2020 has made the launch possible, it added.

TMview is an international information tool used by the IP community to search trade marks in given countries. With the inclusion of Chinese trade marks, it will increase from over 62 million to more than 90 million items from 75 IP Offices.

CNIPA commissioner Shen Changyu and EUIPO executive director Christian Archambeau held a virtual meeting to celebrate the inclusion of Chinese trade marks into TMview.

Archambeau said: "The go-live of Chinese trade mark data in the TMview database is a tribute to the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Europe in general, and morespecifically between the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the

European Union Intellectual Property Office.

"This is a welcome step forward in the efficiency and transparency of the global trade mark system since about 32 million Chinese trade marks are now accessible for a free, multi-lingual search via the internet. This will help Chinese and European businesses, of all sizes, including the small and medium-sized enterprises who are increasingly tackling global markets."

The EUIPO is a decentralised agency of the EU, based in Alicante, Spain. It manages the registration of the European Union trade mark (EUTM) and the registered Community design (RCD), both of which provide intellectual property protection in all EU member states.