Annual Report on SAIC’s Trademark Registration Facilitation Reform

In July 2016, to implement the State Council’s deployment and requirement on streamlining administration, delegating power and improving service, to comprehensively encourage market vitality and promote popular entrepreneurship and mass innovation, SAIC decided to strongly conduct trademark registration facilitation reform.

For the past one year, the reform has left a thick color for trademark development, which dares to face difficulties, tackle problems and conducted brilliantly.

The reform has gained a thick foundation from all areas, to promote the reform a good development.

In 2016, the annual trademark application remained number 1 in the world, which reflected the increasingly acute contradiction between application and examiner. Meanwhile the problems such as not high level of examination information system, single application channel, blocked service channel also displayed daily.

On the basis of improvement of trademark public service, finding a series of problems solved in reform, seeking work breakthrough become the important part when making work plans.

On July 14, 2016, Opinion of SAIC on Strongly Promoting Trademark Registration Facilitation Reform was issued officially.

For the past year, SAIC Party Committee followed the State Council’s requirements on reform, deeply promoted trademark registration facilitation reform, taking a democratic attitude and greater reform courage and wisdom to delicately depict trademark reform plans.

  • Trademark registration facilitation reform leading group meeting was organized many times, where Xi Jinping’s important theory on comprehensively deepening reform was studied to unify ideas and improve understandings, to consolidate reform foundations, and to ensure the directions.
  • Leaders of SAIC personally taking the reform plan, work deployment and major assignment supervision, which solved difficulties and laid good foundation for the smooth progress of reform.
  • On the basis of reality, 51 major assignments were made to clarify leading and coordinating departments, to put forward schedule and to follow the development.
  • Supervised by assignments, taking irregular supervision to ensure reform measures having real effects.

The reform has conducted with great and strong efforts, to ensure reform measures having real effects.

Reform a strong revolution to change internal mechanism, to break vested interest, which needs courage, perseverance and working style.

SAIC party committee, for a long time, focusing on problems, oriented in public concerns, accurately docked the needs and roles of brands in instructing economic development.

  • Daring to change, using different measures to expand application channels. It changed the long time existed way of accepting trademark applications in concentrated area, for the purpose of provide convenient services for applicant, entrusted local AICs and Market Supervision departments to accept applications, set up regional pledge recording areas, and actively promoted online applications to invite public enjoy reform bonus.
  • Daring to decide, comprehensively deepen trademark examination system reform. It aimed at important circles restraining the improvement of examination efficiency to comprehensively deepen trademark examination system reform. It entrusted part of trademark examinations and outsourced whole relevant service to TECC and set up TECC branch outside of Beijing and promote trademark examination by single independent examiner and improve quality supervision mechanism.
  • Daring to act, improving procedures to promote the upgrade of service. By reforming work method, adjusting work procedure to make great concerns on solving the long time waiting for trademark application acceptance document. By simplifying application documents, reforming registers’ issuing method and their contents, opening trademark database, reducing operation fees, optimizing online service, and improving service experience and level.

The reform has developed in its original aspiration and released bonus constantly.

The reform was to let the public enjoy more and more gains and happiness. SAIC party committee commenced its reform from the basic, direct and most concerned public interests, conducted one thing after another to bring in heavy gains.

The reform was to delegate power and facilitate public. For the past year, 76 trademark application acceptance windows were established in 28 provinces and trademark rights pledges recording windows were also set up in 41 AICs and Market Supervision departments in 26 provinces. Online applications, retrievals, gazette, payments were all available, and transactions in relating to online applications were also enlarged.

The reform was conducted unafraid of hard nuts. For one year, trademark application acceptances documents were issued within 3 months from the application, trademark registration certification were issued immediately, trademark examination were finished within 9 months. Online retrieval was efficient, trademark database was available to the whole system, TECCs outside of Beijing were finished their layouts, the percentage that examinations conducted by single independent examiner was enlarged gradually also.

An arrow will never return back, but straighten ahead for success.

Since the one year’s trademark facilitation reform, trademark applications reached 4.227 million, and online applications reached 3.653 million accounting for 85.99%, increasing 11.27% compared with previous year. Local trademark application acceptances windows handled 31037 applications; local pledge recording windows accepted 654 applications which helped to finance 14.69 billion.

At the same time, market entities’ trademark awareness enhanced day by day, for the improvement of application acceptances, service experience, high increase in applications, constant growth in brand value and the daily showing of brands’ functions to instruct economic development. In Millward Brown Top 100 Most Valuable Brands, Chinese brands increased from only 1 to 13 after 12 years, and brand values increased 937%.

Reform is the power for development, and development is the purpose of reform.

Promoting “Chinese products” to change into “Chinese brands”, helping more independent brands to grow bigger and stronger and stand in international antenna were very strong assignment. Standing on the new start, SAIC party committee would like to continue the splendid reform and sail facing the reform waves.