Good practices and border measures to protect the intellectual property in the commercial commodity exchange between Bulgaria and China

A seminar to present good practices and border measures to protect the intellectual property in the commodity exchange between Bulgaria and China took place at the BCCI. The lecturers Simon Cheetam and Kristine Yo from the Technical Assistance Bureau for Protection of Intellectual Property in Beijing - China , funded by the EU, presented before the specialized participants available techniques for protection of world and regional trademarks on the territory of China.

In order to protect a trademark in China, one must consider a radically different culture, business environment and language. Thus, for example, in China the BMW trademark written in local language is translated approximately in the following way  ”I cost dear, do not touch me ”. The example is only to illustrate the enormous differences between the Chinese and the European culture, business and language.

In the one-day seminar held at the BCCI participated more than 50 business representatives, lawyers’ bureaus working in the sphere of intellectual property, representatives of “Patent Department ” and the customs. Discussed were problems from the point of view of commodity import from China , the numerous fake copies and ways to reduce the risk in the commercial relations with China.

The European specialists working in the office in Beijing, China, explained the legislation and the techniques of defending the intellectual property in China, as well as the role of the customs and other services in the fight against fakes.

The commodity exchange of China - Europe for the 6 months of 2009 is 160 billion USD, and for 2 008 – 250  billion USD. The problem of defending the intellectual property in the commercial relations China-Europe is of extreme importance because a big part of the commodities produced in China depart for Europe and increasingly more European firms produce in China.