China to Crack Down on Domain Squatting
Sohu IT, 12/25/12
The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress is currently reviewing an amendment to China's trademark law to prevent malicious trademark violations. According to the draft regulation, any application for a domain name related to an existing trademark with which the applying party has had previous contracts, will have future business interests, or in any other way was aware of the existence of the trademark and does not own the trademark, will not be accepted.
In order to curb "brand stealing" trademark infringement, the draft regulation stipulates that any unlicensed use of trademarked corporate brand names, fonts, and images intended to mislead the public will constitute illicit competition and be in violation of related unfair competition laws.
The draft regulation authorizes courts to issue fines of between RMB 500,000 and RMB 1 mln for related violations.
Keywords: Internet telecom wireless television penalty hardware law regulation software trademark domain name branding NPC IPR infringement
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