Tag Archives: Design Patents

IP Protection for the Food & Beverages Industry in Malaysia

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fb-ip-protectionIn today’s blog post we are taking a look at the IP protection in Malaysia for the food and beverages sector. The F&B sector in Malaysia is rapidly growing,  but so are counterfeiting and other IP infringements. This blog post gives some advice to European SMEs on how to build a robust IP protection strategy in Malaysia for the food and beverages sector.  

Malaysia’s food & beverage industry is growing rapidly, with the revenue of over 25 billion EUR in 2015 and with an annual growth rate of 7.6%,[1] making the country thus attractive for European SMEs.

Malaysia has a large Muslim population and has, thus strong consumer demand for imported beef, mutton and other halal products.  This means that importers should be aware of that all slaughtered food must possess halal certification and adhere to specific labelling requirements.

Malaysia’s rapidly growing middle class constitutes a consumer base that is increasingly health-conscious, pays attention to the nutrition value of the food, prefers minimally processed fresh food and tends to trust foreign (western) brands when it comes to packaged food.

Together with rapid economic growth, counterfeiting in food products has also increased dramatically in recent years. Thus, the EU SMEs should take steps to ensure that their IP rights are protected, when selling their food products to Malaysia.

IPR are very relevant in the food & beverage industry, such as Trade Marks, Geographical Indications, Design and Trade Secrets.

Trade Mark Protection in Malaysia

Increasing brand consciousness, concerns about food safety and the relatively high number of counterfeiting in the country mean that brand reputation is especially important in Malaysia. A trustworthy brand can be critical to the success of food & beverage products as company’s trade mark functions as a badge of quality. Continue reading “IP Protection for the Food & Beverages Industry in Malaysia” »

Enforcing IPR in China: a Case Study

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courtEnforcing your IP rights in case of an infringement is one of the key factors of business success in China as the reputation of being litigious eventually discourages counterfeiters from infringing on your products. In today’s blog post we will take a look at how one French garment company dealt with IP infringements and what did the company learn from its experience.

Creative industry goods are valuable not only for their designs but often their trade marks too, and businesses should be aware that intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement can target either or both of these types of intangible assets. However, in actual cases of infringement enforcement processes are not always straightforward, and careful consideration and adaptation of strategies is necessary, as illustrated in this case study of a French garment designer.

Background

A French company “A” entered into a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company “B” in order to manufacture and export a seasonal garment collection to Europe. To minimise costs, the design of each individual piece of clothes was not been protected in China. However the trade mark appearing on the collar label was registered.

“A” was providing their new patterns to “B”, 3 to 4 months prior to the launch of their collection. “B” was then sub-contracting the manufacture of the garments to another factory of which “A” was not aware. The goods were then exported by “B” to “A”, who was receiving the goods for distribution in their stores. Additionally, “A” did not have any local representative in China to supervise and check production and quality.

After two or three collections were manufactured, the quality of the production started going down to the extent that “A” had to refuse entire shipments of goods. As the poor quality of the products was putting its business in jeopardy, “A” was forced to find an alternative way to manufacture the goods. Continue reading “Enforcing IPR in China: a Case Study” »

Upcoming Reform: Registered Designs Regime in Singapore

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shutterstock_385731427Singapore has recently finalized the review of registered designs and is ready to implement the amendments to the Registered Designs Act. These amendments are meant to bring Singapore’s design rights in line with the changing environment and improve the country’s design industry. Our external IP experts Mr. Max Ng and Ms. You Na Lee from the Gateway Law Corporation have kindly drafted for us today’s blog post, where they discuss these amendments and their implications to the European SMEs. 

Introduction

In light of the recent technological advances and evolving business practices in the designs industry, the Ministry of Law (the “MinLaw”) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (the “IPOS”) commenced their review of the registered designs regime in Singapore in 2014, conducting 2 rounds of public consultations, and numerous focus group talks and one-to-one consultations with design associations, business, IP practitioners and academics. They have completed their joint review and released a “Final Report on the Review of Singapore’s Registered Designs Regime”, which sets out their recommendations to amend the Registered Designs Act (the “RDA”) to keep abreast of the changes in the industry.

Aims

The proposed reform is to complement the “Design 2025 Masterplan” released by DesignSingapore Council in March 2016, which sets out the government initiatives and policy framework to develop Singapore into a creativity- and innovation-driven economy and ecosystem by supporting capitalisation of the intellectual property in Singapore. Design is identified as one of the key pillars and catalysts to propel such a paradigm shift.

In the meantime, it seeks to protect interests of the users and the public, support business certainty and remain in line with international best practices, especially with other major markets. The MinLaw and IPOS have therefore taken into account different interests of all stakeholders and decided to implement some changes to the current designs regime to provide for sustainability and growth of the designs industry in Singapore. Continue reading “Upcoming Reform: Registered Designs Regime in Singapore” »

IPR Protection in China for the Medical Device Industry: Case Study

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pharma-sectorIn today’s blog post we will take a look at a case study from the medical device industry in order to explore how important it is to register and obtain IP rights in China before starting to do business in or with China. The case study will also show that persistent IP enforcement is one of the key factors to IP protection and business success in China. 

Background of the Case

A European company in the dental instruments sector was selling their product in China through a Chinese distributor. They discovered a competitor in China was offering a similar, but lower-specification product, using an identical exterior design, colour scheme, and control interface. The technical manual, diagrams and parts of their brochure appeared in part to be directly copied from the original. Overall, the competitor’s product gave the appearance of being similar in function to that of the European company, although its performance level and price were much lower. Continue reading “IPR Protection in China for the Medical Device Industry: Case Study” »

IP Protection in China for the Cosmetics Industry

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cosmeticsToday’s blog post focuses on the  cosmetics industry – one of the fast-growing industries in China – discussing the IP issues relating to patent protection, trade mark protection and design protection. As counterfeiting in cosmetics is still a big issue in China and failing to protect your IP can sometimes mean the end of the business endeavor to China, it is  wise to have a robust IP protection strategy in place. Today’s blog post introduces European SMEs the tools they can use to build a good IP protection strategy in the cosmetics industry in China. 

In recent years, due to the expansion of China’s middle class, increased interest in personal care has led to the rapid development of the cosmetics industry. In addition, the adjustment of the tariff system in China and the rise of e-commerce platforms like Taobao or Jindong also contributed to the sales of cosmetics products. The industry shows an annual growth of 12% and broke the RMB 200 billion mark of sales volume in 2015[1]. The most successful products are skincare products, including moisturisers and masks, products safe for children, anti-aging products, spot-removal products, and sunscreen and whitening products.

In this market, image and trustworthiness are paramount. Chinese cosmetics consumers are more resilient to advertising and increasing influenced by peer recommendations, meaning that consistent, favorable mentions through social media such as WeChat groups are the pillars of sales growth. At the same time, the production and sale of fake and inferior products continues to be prevalent on the Chinese market – despite recent campaigns and targeted efforts of the Chinese government. Particularly, due to their popularity and high quality, overseas cosmetics brands are the usual victims of counterfeiting[2]. The infringement acts are mainly trade mark and outer packaging imitation, and customers consequently confuse the authentic and counterfeit products, leading to loss of sales, reputation and oftentimes product liability issues. Thus, for cosmetics enterprises, wishing to enter to China, it is still very important to have a robust IP strategy in place. Continue reading “IP Protection in China for the Cosmetics Industry” »