| Rapid Growth of Licensing in
Shanghai from TDCtrade.com, Nov.
15, 2002
Licensing is a fast growing industry in the world in recent years. Walt
Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are adored by billions of children
across the world. The licensing of these cartoon characters thus has a huge
market potential and demand. Licensors and licensed products of all kinds,
including comics, multimedia products, entertainment, audio-visual products,
sporting goods, clothing, gifts, stationery, toys, houseware, ladies' and
children's goods, watches and clocks, luggage, leather goods and artistic
images, are becoming increasingly sought after.
In
Shanghai, trademark and brand licensing has a considerable market. On the
one hand, Shanghai has its own popular branded products which have a vast
market at home. On the other hand, more and more international brand and
product licensors are taking the city as their beachhead for opening up the
China market.
Based on
interviews with various government departments and organisations, the
development of licensing in Shanghai can be summarised as follows.
First,
licensing in Shanghai is still at its infancy. Many people equate licensing
with franchising, chain operation or even intellectual property rights (IPR).
Bai Zhikun, deputy director of the Shanghai Trade Exhibition Office, noted
that trademarks are managed by industrial and commercial administrations,
patents by IPR departments and copyrights by publishing departments, but
licensing does not belong to any of these. Xu Weihua, director of Shanghai's
IPR Bureau, said that licensing is not only about patents and trademarks but
is about the authorised deal of brands, and the bureau neither has the power
nor the means to manage licensing. He reckoned that it is difficult to
obtain official data and development details on the industry.
Second,
the licensing industry has witnessed rapid growth in Shanghai recently.
According to Ding Shuang, deputy director of the Shanghai Trademark Office,
applications for trademark licensing have increased by 50% year-on-year
since the beginning of 2002, and the office has processed over 200
applications for the licensing of more than 30 Chinese and foreign brands.
As a matter of fact, many famous international companies and brands,
including Warner Brothers, Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Garfield, Little Bobdog,
Winnie the Pooh, Picasso and Valentino, take part in the 2002 Shanghai
International Licensing Show, the first of its kind in China, held from 6-9
November.
Third,
Shanghai's licensing industry largely deals in domestic trademarks and
brands. Ding Shuang said that renowned local enterprises make up the bulk of
licensors and there are not that many foreign brands. She declined to
disclose the trademarks being licensed or the names of the companies
involved on the ground that they are commercial secrets, but indicated that
they mainly have to do with garments, cosmetics and daily consumer items.
Fourth,
in terms of the forms of licensing, cases handled by the Shanghai Trademark
Office are basically about licensors licensing the use of their brand to
licensees. Under the terms of the trademark licensing contracts signed,
licensees may produce, deal in and sell the products concerned, or just
produce the products and leave the marketing to the licensors. This roughly
resembles the OEM model. |
