I. Place high importance, meticulously organize the action and take effective measures

Being convinced that the special action for rectifications could put the implementation of the Outline of National Intellectual Property Strategy and trademark strategy into practice as well as guarantee a healthy development of trademark cause, the industry and commerce system in Anhui Province attached great importance to this special action. Pursuant to the essence of Notice released by SAIC, the Industrial and Commercial departments at the provincial and municipal levels worked out the specific suggestions and painstakingly organized this action upon the actual situations. The Administration for Industry and Commerce in Chuzhou, Wuhu and Liu'an conveyed the essence of Notice to the local trademark agents and jointly discussed the issues about the healthy development of trademark agency market. Moreover, Ma'anshan AIC made the most of the rectifications and further strengthened the communication with the registration departments, so as to subsume information management into routine supervision, such as registration and credit management. There were 53 trademark agents in Hefei, ranked No.1 in terms of number. Hefei AIC highlighted well-behaved trademark agency and honest & credible operation. Based on the features of local trademark agents, such measures as dependency management, hierarchical responsibility and full-scale supervision were taken, so as to give full play of this action.

  II. Investigate in an all-round manner, highlight key points and guarantee substantial results

Pursuant to the essence of Notice released by SAIC, Anhui Administration for Industry and Commerce has accomplished full-scale investigation and highlighted the key points upon the actual situations, so as to guarantee substantial results. In this action, whether being involved in the following offenses against the law was focused: I. Adopt window dressing when applying for business; II. Falsify and modify legal documents; III. Defraud consigners to make money; IV. Fail to fulfill or partially fulfill obligations thus doing harm to the consigner's interests; V. Accept the commission at ill will or against the state laws or that is suspected of being involved in fraud; VI. Disclose secret information to other organizations or individuals without the consent of consigner in advance; VII. Misguide the consigner via overstatement or false and deceiving publicity; VIII. Slander other trademark agency or agents or vie for business by means of sales commission or other unfair competition.

Besides self check conducted by the local administration for industry and commerce, Anhui Administration for Industry and Commerce dispatched an inspection team for the key cities and counties. As indicated upon the check, each trademark agency can operate in an honest and credible manner. Up to now, no serious offenses have been found, but some problems should be paid with attention: some small-sized trademark agencies with one or two persons can’t satisfy relevant requirements in business; some employees with lower quality and educational attainment are not familiar with relevant laws, regulations and agency service; some agencies have no fixed domicile due to a few businesses or fail to conduct normal activities or timely apply for cancellation and alternation procedures, etc. Therefore, Anhui Administration for Industry and Commerce has placed high importance to these problems mentioned above and positively studied the measures for further regulation and guidance, so as to push forward the healthy development of trademark agency sector in the province.

  III. Further grasp the status quo of trademark agents market within the province, set up the basic database and strive to build the supervisory mechanism with enduring effect

  In this action, Anhui Administration for Industry and Commerce launched a full-scale check up on all the trademark agencies. Up to now, the number of trademark agencies in Anhui Province is not quite many and most of them are small-sized agencies, so this market still remains at the take-off stage. Also, the development of trademark agencies in the province is not balanced. There are 83 trademark agencies in the province, but most of them are dispersed over such economically developed areas as Hefei, Wuhu City, Ma'anshan, Tonglin and Xuancheng. There is small amount of trademark agencies in Liu'an, Chaohu, Fuyang, Bangbu, Chuzhou, Huaibei, Chizhou and Anqing and so on, but some areas haven't set up trademark agencies till now. By virtue of this general investigation, the status quo of Anhui trademark agency market can be basically mastered. In addition, the database on trademark agencies in Anhui Province has been established and improved, including name of agency, legal representative, registered address, number of employees, liaison and main statistical data on recent businesses, etc, so as to further enhance pertinence and effectiveness of supervision and control.

  Anhui Administration for Industry and Commerce places high importance to the long-lasting supervisory mechanism on trademark agencies, so as to guarantee the healthy and orderly development of trademark agency market: I. Communication among the Provincial Trademark Office, enterprise registration departments and trademark agencies should be strengthened and the mechanism to achieve bottom-up linkage and prompt & efficient exchanges between the provincial industrial and commercial bureau and trademark agencies can be established step by step. II. The Provincial Trademark Office should, jointly with the enterprise registration departments, make the most of the industrial and commercial administration website, so as to put credit classification into practice. Dishonest trademark agencies will be enlisted into "blacklist", thus establishing the long-lasting supervisory mechanism that consists of credit information management, credit evaluation and penalties, etc. III. The municipal AICs should regularly update the information on local trademark agencies to the Provincial Trademark Office, give full play to the complaint and reporting hotline "12315" and deal with offenses with timely accreditation and penalties, so as to safeguard lawful rights and interests of trademark applicants by law.