Recall of Household Appliances Attaching Importance again to Intellectual Property

July 2, the State Council Legislative Affairs Office announced "The Management Regulations of Household Appliances Recall (draft)" drafted by the State Administration of Quality Supervision on its website in order to accumulate and listen to the community for comments and suggestions.  The deadline of comments is July 10, 2010.

Some experts of Intellectual property said the implementation of recall system must make the enterprises in China pay more attention to the construction of intellectual property and spend more time and energy on technological innovation, brand maintenance and technical standard in order to make our own household appliances brands enter the international market more quickly.

Recall making enterprises attach importance to brand construction

After several years of development, China's household electrical appliance enterprises have entered a relatively mature period.  When consumers purchase a product, brand often becomes an important basis for choosing homogeneous products.  Once a well-known brand experiences "recall", then the image of its mark will be greatly reduced.

Mr. Tao Xinliang, the dean president of School of intellectual property of Tongji University said when interviewed by China Intellectual Property News that once companies get frustration or failure in the recall system "examination", it is easy to lead to the "avalanche effect." corporate reputation.  Before the product has quality problems, manufacturers, including some well-known brand manufacturers often tend to "Compounding", its purpose is to prevent product defects known to the public, thus affecting the brand and corporate reputation.

According to reports, this draft also stipulates charging recall system, which is an act corresponding with an international standard.  If the consumer’s opinions are not accepted by the manufacturer, government will make mandatory recall.  It is the higher demand to business and brand maintenance.

In fact, some companies do not focus on brand maintenance.  If to neglect long-term intangible brand value of brand, and not deal with product quality problem, it will inevitably bring about a fatal blow to the brand image.  In response, some manufacturers have also expressed their own concerns.  The spokesman of Hangzhou ShuYuan Technology Co., Ltd. said if consumers boycotted products, a brand with years of construction will probably will be collapsed.

Pressure forcing enterprises to string "technical control"

If the company stands out in the Examination pressure, it is good to upgrade product quality.  Some well-known household appliances enterprises in China experienced several decades of development and gained a high degree of technical maturity.  For example Haier, at the end of 2009, Haier's total number of patent applications is 9738, of which invention is 2799, ranking the top one among Chinese household appliance companies.  This is technical support to Haier.  Relevant person from Department of Skyworth in charge of Brand said the recall system is a good thing for company, home appliance product recall is an extension of the enterprise to further enhance product quality control, and promote its own business progress.

In fact, the recall system for those companies who do not attach importance to the patent and technology is a rigorous test.  Mr. Tao Xinliang, said the recall system would not only facilitate the strict implementation of existing technical standards for home appliances business, but also improve the technical standards or integration of these enterprises.  For example, in 2006, Dell recalled millions of laptop computer, afterwards, the representatives from Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Nokia and other firms negotiated with each other on technical standards of battery supplier and drafted the relevant technical standard in order to enable enterprises to minimize number of defective products, thereby reduce the incidence of recall.  It is expected that China technical standards for household appliances production will be more strictly enforced in the future.

The implementation of China's household electrical appliance recall system is not only a challenge to the enterprises, but also an opportunity.  Many world-famous trademarks experienced "recall accident”.  Some companies can turn crises into opportunities and take this chance to establish a mature brand.  Some experts believe that, if without the support of excellent brand reputation and intellectual property core technology, Chinese enterprises is bound to pay the high tuition fees in international competition.  Implementation of the appliance recall system is conducive to let China's household electrical appliance enterprises "going abroad."