Company apologizes for filing trademark application using name of late whistleblower doctor

By Chen Shasha Source:Global Times Published: 2020/2/27 23:43:40

Photo:Cui Meng/GT



The intellectual property authority in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province on Thursday ordered a local company to cancel a trademark application using the name of Li Wenliang, the late COVID-19 whistleblower doctor.

The company had issued a letter on Thursday evening to apologize for its conduct and had withdrawn all the applications, which are suspected of breaching China's trademark law, according to media reports.

The company, named Changsha Fuchatang e-Commerce Co, applied for four trademarks for medical devices, medicine and instant food by using "Li Wenliang" and "Wenliang," on February 7, the day Li died of the novel coronavirus infection.

"Such trademark applications violate social morality and will cause an adverse social impact," Hong Dongfan, a Shanghai-based lawyer with AllBright Law Offices, told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that such behavior will be given an administrative punishment for applying for a trademark with malicious intent, according to the regulations.

The company's behavior sparked severe outrage on social media with many netizens criticizing it for taking advantage of the late doctor.

"Shameless. The company must be severely punished," a netizen said on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo.

"Please show respect to those who have gone," another wrote.

Previously, the names of makeshift hospitals Leishenshan and Huoshenshan have also been used in trademark applications by companies.

The Trademark Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration announced Wednesday that it had implemented controls on nearly 600 trademark registration applications related to the novel coronavirus epidemic, such as "Leishenshan" and "Huoshenshan."

The office also announced on February 13 that the trademark review department has stepped up trademark review standards during the epidemic control, aiming to severely crack down on malicious trademark registration behavior.

Posted in: SOCIETY

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