Bureau Cancels "PDA" TrademarkThe Trademark Bureau under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce announced in Beijing Tuesday it has canceled the trademark "PDA" registered by a local company in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei in north China."PDA" is short for personal digital aide, an electronic memo pad which is widely sold on the market and is generically referred to as "PDA", and therefore cannot be registered as a trademark, according to an official from the bureau. Fulande Business Development Company, former owner of the trademark, registered the label in 1997, and since has sued a Hong Kong-based firm for copyright infringement for printing "PDA" on a personal digital aide. The Hong Kong company, which suffered financial losses in the lawsuit, later appealed to the administration. After an investigation, the administration canceled the trademark. China manufactured 3.5 million PDAs last year and the output goes up by 30 percent annually, according to official statistics. |
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