On 29 May 2020, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 outbreak, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued the Notice on Eliminating Copycats of Famous Hospitals and Other Healthcare Institutions.
The notice aims to eliminate from the healthcare industry copycats that are free-riding on the reputation of trade names or famous hospitals – in particular, 'Union' ('协和'), 'Huashan' ('华山'), 'Xiangya' ('湘雅'), 'West China' ('华西'), 'Qilu' ('齐鲁'), 'Tongji' ('同济') and 'Tiantan' ('天坛').
The SAMR has vowed to take several measures, including:
- strengthening protection for the trade names of famous hospitals and other healthcare institutions (eg, the names of enterprises containing the trade names of the aforesaid famous hospitals cannot be registered without authorisation and those that have already been registered must be changed);
- increasing efforts to fight copycats, false advertising and other unfair competition acts in the healthcare sector; and
- publicising the administrative punishment records of healthcare institutions and listing discredited enterprises.
