Market Information

Hotels in Beijing are slashing prices for next month’s Olympics after the expected windfall of foreign visitors failed to materialise, state media reports today. The statement is a major backtrack after repeated reports throughout the year that Beijing hotels were already fully booked during the Games period.

Beijing Visitor Boom Hasn’t Happened, Tourism Authority Says

from Biz China Update - News, Reports

A CHINESE kiwi fruit company has been ordered to pay a Kiwi company compensation and told not to use its trademark sun emblem.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court yesterday ruled the New Zealand Zespri Group Co Ltd, the world’s largest kiwi fruit producer and seller, should get 300,000 yuan (US$43,668) in compensation from Nantong Xishu Fruit Trade Co Ltd and that Xishu must stop using Zespri’s trademark immediately.

Zespri said it began to sell kiwi fruit in Shanghai in 1998 and built up a good reputation for taste and nutrition after a long period of promotion.

But Zespri’s employees discovered last year that Xishu, a Jiangsu Province company, was selling kiwi fruit under the Znishio name and bearing a sun emblem. The Zespri people thought Znishio was too much like its trademark and reported it to the local market watchdog.

Twice last year the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau seized a large number of kiwi fruit, packing boxes and labels with the Znishio trademark. Xishu was also using the Znishio trademark on its store signs, its business cards and Website. Its products were being sold in neighboring cities.

Xishu argued its trademark was very different from Zespri and would never confuse consumers. The sun emblem is commonly identified with kiwi fruit and did not belong to Zespri alone.

But the court said Zespri owns the sun or at least the exclusive rights to the Zespri trademark and the sun emblem. The combination of the label, color and characters used by Xishu were identical enough to make most consumers think Xishu’s product was related to Zespri.

via: shanghai daily 

Here’s a good link for businesses thinking of exporting to China. It includes simple steps to assess if you’re ready for the challenges of China as well as information, case studies and support for those wanting to look at the opportunities China offers. Link

Getting goods and people into Beijing from now until the end of the Olympics is going to get more and more difficult as security tightens. I Had the most strengent security checks on my way into Beijing last week, they almost didn’t let me in because they thought I looked different to my passport picture!

We also we have a shipment that has been “held up” due to the extra security checks so expect delays in getting things in and out of Beijing!

Joe

Photo from: NZ Herald.

BEIJING - Guards with machine guns began patrolling the Beijing airport as the city tightens security for the Olympics, news reports said Saturday.

Also this weekend, police will start checking Beijing subway passengers for guns and explosives, the reports said.

The measures reflect the fears of Chinese leaders, who worry the Olympics might be tarnished by security threats. They also hope to stop activists who want to use the August games to air grievances against the communist government.

At the airport, two-member teams of guards with machine guns began work Thursday and will patrol all three terminals through the end of the Olympics, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers reported. Chinese police usually are unarmed, while some airport guards carry pistols.

“I think they look cool, and you rarely get to see such big guns,” the China Daily newspaper quoted a female traveler at the airport as saying.

On subways, police with dogs will start checking passengers for guns, knives, explosives and flammable, poisonous or radioactive material on Sunday, Xinhua said.

Story via: NZ Herald    Security tightens in Beijing for the Olympics