As the Expo 2010 Shanghai approaches, there is a tendency of increasing intellectual property infringement cases. In order to strengthen intellectual property protection of the World Expo, the Shanghai Municipal Government and related departments have already formulated a series of supporting policies and reinforced the IP enforcement for a successful Expo and for the commitment by People's Government of China.
According to a recent enforcement meeting for national intellectual property offices, from 2005 to October of 2009, Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination cooperated with departments for industry and commerce, customs, public bureau and other agencies and have investigated and solved 163 infringement cases. For the first ten month in 2009, there were 120 cases solved. In addition, SIPO provided support to local IP offices in enforcement relating to the expo and all the intellectual property offices are required to cooperate with each other to do a better job in intellectual property protection.
In order to provide better and efficient protection for Expo logo, the State Council issued Regulation on the Protection of World Expo Logo and Marks in 2004. Up to now, Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination has recorded 61 Expo logos before State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and 56 Expo logos before General Administration of Customs; registered trademarks for the expo logos covering 45 classes of products and services. The mascot was registered as trademark covering all classes. In addition, the logo and design of the Expo was registered internationally for protection and countries and regions include U..S, Japan, South Korea, Australia, German, France, Hong Kong, Macao and other 31 countries.
By the end of October 2009, Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination has accepted 257 applications for use of the Expo logo by the public, 80% of which are allowed.
