A petition signed by tens of thousands of Chinese netizens protesting against the registration of the "Not made in China" trade mark was handed over to the Delegation of the European Commission to China on Mar. 13.

On Sept. 13, 2005, Alvito, a company registered in Gibraltar applied for the trade mark to the EU Office for Harmonization of Internal Market (OHIM). The OHIM made the initial review announcement (trade mark number: 004631305) on Feb. 20 this year. Under the EU law, the trade mark will be effective if no objection is filed within three months after the announcement.

The Chinese public was angered by the news report about the application. Several media have facilitated the online signature campaign. Data from the Beijing Trademark and Patent Agency recorded 3,000 signatures and 115 messages on the www.cnstock.com and 10,097 signatures and 357 messages on the Netease website.

"The Chinese public and businesses generally hold that the trade mark, if registered successfully, makes a serious confusion with ��Made in China' , conveys severely misleading value to European consumers, causes great damage to the image and benefits of ��Made in China' products, injures the Chinese people's feeling deeply and violates the market rules," says the petition put forward by the Beijing Trademark and Patent Agency.

An official with the Trade Mark Department of OHIM said anyone or any organization can express their ideas. She added that objections can come from similar applicants in previous cases or anyone who are opposed the application and the EU would take these objections into consideration before making decisions. She thought expectable protests from China and the record of the same application rejected by the US court would impact the final decision.

"Trade marks like ��Not Made in China' is an evident discriminative rhetoric against ��Made in China'. A trade mark is the basis to build the intangible assets of a product. The ��Not Made in China' , as a trade mark if it is the case, will have intangible, but negative impact on China made products," said Dong Baolin, chief Chinese negotiator for the GATT intellectual property rights talks and former vice director of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce.

By People's Daily Online