Apple Inc. succeeded on Tuesday in preventing Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc from registering its “Mi Pad” tablet computer as an EU trademark because the name was too similar to Apple’s “iPad.”
Most people lump all such third party registrants together under the common rubric of “trademark squatters,” but in fact, the registrants can be separated into five distinct categories, and the appropriate response (and the likelihood of success) depends on the category in which category they fall.
On 4 November 2017, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the amendment to the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law (the “AUCL“) which provides more clarity on the scope of what constitutes commercial bribery. The Amendment will become effective on 1 January 2018 and is the first amendment to the AUCL since its implementation in 1993. This important development indicates that China’s anti-corruption campaign continues to escalate.
China recently released a revised draft of amendments to its law governing commercial bribery that would scale back some of the more far-reaching changes in a draft released last year while returning to a broader scope of commercial bribery.
