Companies are urged to protect their brands

Beijing has seen robust growth in trademark registrations in recent years, but there is still a long way to go for the city to own more globally recognized trademarks, authorities said on Monday.

The city holds more than 250,000 trademarks and the number is rising every year, according to the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce (BAIC).

In Chaoyang district alone, from 2006 to 2009, trademark registrations grew by 24.7 percent each year.

So far, the district owns about 60,000 trademarks, of which business services, finance and modern service industries account for 36 percent, according to statistics released by BAIC's Chaoyang branch at the Summit on Implementing Trademark Strategy and Promoting Brand Development that took place on Monday.

The increasing number of trademark registrations is in accordance with the growing awareness of trademark protection among enterprises.

Quanjude, a time-honored Beijing brand, was among the earliest of the city's enterprises to implement a trademark strategy both at home and abroad, according to Jiang Junxian, chairman of the famous roast duck group.

Since the early 1990s, the group has registered 198 trademarks domestically as well as 74 trademarks in the US, UK, and France to protect the interests of the brand.

But it has not all been straightforward.

The company invited a group of top English experts to discuss the translation of its brand name, in case it was difficult for non-Chinese to pronounce and remember.

"But they finally suggested, maybe just Peking Ducks, they had no better options," Jiang said, when asked about the difficulties the company met promoting the brand in other countries.

According to Fu Shuangjian, deputy director of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, although China is set to become the world's second largest economy by the end of the year, in this year's list of the world's most valuable brands there were only 19 that were Chinese.

Fu added that among the 250,000 trademarks registered in Beijing, only 456 of them are famous national brands.

Although the awareness of trademark registration and protection among enterprises is increasing among the public, experts say brand loyalty and respect for trademarks is still weak.

"That's why you can see everyday Chinese, even foreigners, flock to the Silk Market to buy cheap imitations of clothes or bags with famous brand names," said Su Lianhai, a staff member from BAIC's CBD branch.

"Low prices are still the big attraction."