‘Years’ to settle patent bid
Cookie Time was quick to fight a ‘‘copy and paste’’ rip-off job of its corporate logo by a Chinese company, but it could be in for a long wait before the matter is settled by the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office.
Late last year, the Canterbury cookie manufacturer objected to an application by the Qingdao Chengze Trade Company to patent the Cookie Time corporate logo.
Cookie Time general manager Lincoln Booth said the company was alerted to the application by its intellectual property lawyers, James & Wells, which it pays ‘‘hundred of thousands of dollars’’ to protect its brand.
The lawyers have said it could take up to two years for the case to be heard in China.
Booth said the application appeared to be a ‘‘blatant copy and paste’’ from the Cookie Time website. The Chinese company had not contacted Cookie Time and it was unclear whether it intended to use the patent to get royalties from the Kiwi company for using its brand in China or whether it wanted to use the logo itself, he said.
It also held up Cookie Time’s application to register its trademarks in China for future expansion.
Cookie Time has successfully fought for its intellectual property before, once in New Zealand and once in Hong Kong, he said.
‘‘We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on intellectual property protection and we certainly don’t back down when someone’s encroaching on it.’’
He was concerned that it could take two years to put the case to rest, especially given the problems faced by American electronics giant Apple with its ipad trademark in China.
Last year, a Chinese court ruled the ipad trademark for China was owned by a Chinese company, unconnected to Apple, which registered the trademark in 2001.