Article 1 The present Measures are formulated for the purpose of promoting the transformation of trade growth mode, effectively increasing trade efficiency, promoting the implementation of brand strategies as well as regulating and enforcing evaluation and protection of brands in the commercial field.

Article 2 The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) shall, within its scope of powers endowed by the State Council, be in charge of uniformly carrying out the work in respect of evaluation and protection of brands in the commercial field.

Article 3 The competent administrations of commerce in each province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government, city specifically designated in the state plan and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (hereinafter referred to as local competent administrations of commerce) as well as national industrial associations and import-export chambers (hereinafter referred to as industrial organizations) shall be in charge of the work of applying and recommending the related brands of the local places and the same industries under the provisions of the present Measures and carry out the work regarding promotion, improvement, protection and social investigation of brands within their respective scope of powers.

Article 4 Evaluation of brands in the commercial field shall be based on the market performance of a brand in both domestic and overseas markets, represent the recognition, selection, use, appraisement and feedback of its users and embody its capacities of market competition and value creation as well as the potential of long-term development.

Article 5 Evaluation of brands in the commercial field shall take the voluntary application of an enterprise as the premise, employ the mechanism of application by enterprises, evaluation through model, assessment by experts, recognition by market and publication by governments, and abide by the principles of science, impartiality, objectiveness and selection of the best.

Article 6 When applying for a brand in the commercial field, the following conditions shall be met:

(1) The applicant enterprise is set up within the territory of China in accordance with law and legally exists, participates of its own free will and agrees to comply with all provisions and requirements of the MOFCOM concerning evaluation and protection of brands;

(2) The brand under application is created within the territory of China, its ownership belongs to the applicant enterprise, it has been used for three years or more, has been registered as a trademark or has obtained the legal protection of equal validity in the major domestic and overseas markets, and the place for its first registration as a trademark is China;

(3) The brand under application is a brand of enterprise, product or service with relatively strong market competitiveness, influence and fairly high popularity, whose quality has reached the leading level of China or the advanced level of the world, who has relatively strong capacities of independent innovation and sustainable development and has obtained recognition of the market, general public and a vast number of users;

(4) The economic and social performance of the applicant enterprise is good, both the gross incomes from sales and the brand's capacity of making profits (the proportion of the net sales profit over the total sales costs of the brand product and service) rank top in this industry;

(5) The related brand products and services and the applicant enterprise itself comply with the provisions of the related state laws and regulations on industry, safety, sanitation, environmental protection and social liability etc.

Article 7 The MOFCOM shall carry out evaluation of brands regularly; issue a notice concerning evaluation of brands in the commercial field in advance specifying the scope, procedures and period for the current evaluation.

Article 8 An applicant enterprise shall fill in the application papers according to the facts, supply actual, valid and integrated materials for evidence and necessary channels for verification, and submit them to the competent administration of commerce of its locality or to the related industrial organizations within the fixed period.

The local competent administrations of commerce or industrial organizations shall examine and verify the authenticity, validity and integrity of the application materials of the participating brands in the current places or industries, propose its recommending opinions and submit the application materials to the MOFCOM within the provisioned time limit.

Article 9 The MOFCOM may, according to the demands of the evaluation work, entrust professional institutions to conduct verification, sorting out and comprehensive measurement and calculation on all indices and data of the participating brands, set up several expert working groups to verify and evaluate the participating brands and entrust professional fact-finding organs and public media to carry out social investigation on the participating brands.

Article 10 The MOFCOM shall publicize the list of brands to be evaluated to the general public, grant corresponding brand titles and use rights of brand marks to enterprises in accordance with the publication situation and publicize the related situation to the general public.

Article 11 In case an enterprise, which has obtained a brand title granted by the MOFCOM, seriously injures the rights and interests of the consumers, has any great quality problem or safety accident, severely impairs intellectual property right of any other person, seriously disrupts the market order or obtains the brand title by illegal means such as falsification, the MOFCOM shall revoke the related brand title of the enterprise and may not accept its application for participating in evaluation of brands for one to three years.

Article 12 Activities of brand evaluation in the commercial field shall accept supervision of all circles in the society. No entity or individual may, by taking advantage of this opportunity, charge any fee against any participating enterprise or conduct any profit-making activity.

Article 13 When any organ or personnel participating in the brand evaluation work of the MOFCOM conducts the evaluation work, it/he shall follow the related provisions and procedures, and shall bear the obligation of keeping confidential the business and technical secrets for the participating enterprises.

Article 14 Any entity or individual, when finding any violation of laws or regulations in the work of brand evaluation in the commercial field, may complain or pick it up to the MOFCOM or the local competent administrations of commerce. The complainant or informer shall provide materials in written form, show the authentic identity and provide necessary materials for evidence.

Article 15 In case of any infringement upon the right to enterprise title, right to the exclusive use of a registered trademark, patent right, copyright or any other intellectual property right of a brand granted by the MOFCOM, any act of