China trademark registration
Do you manufacture products in China? Do you sell products there? Do you plan on doing either in the foreseeable future?
If you answered "YES" to any one of these questions above, chances are you have either gone through the trouble of registering a trademark in China (for your sake I hope so) or registering one is something that you are considering doing, in which case you still have a chance of beating the block.
China trademark registration is somewhat of a different beast than what you may be familiar with back home, and knowing what these differences are may help you to negotiate the tricky landscape of trademarks in China with greater success.
We've taken the liberty of composing an infographic aptly titled 'The World of Trademarks in China' to help show you:
- what trademarks in China look like
- why you need to register your trademark in China (even if you've done so abroad)
- which foreign companies have been caught out by China's unusual IP protection laws
- what you can not register as a trademark in China
Learn about all of this in our infographic on trademarks in China below...
Tweet this infographic to your followers!
After taking a look at the infographic above, it's needless to say, but you absolutely need to register your trademarks in China before anyone else does!
Registering your trademark abroad is not enough to protect you. If large MNCs aren't safe from China's 'first-to-file' system, what makes you think that you should take any chances?
At the end of the day, making trademark registration a priority for your company (and doing so well in advance of your arrival in China) is by far the safest option.
Once you do so you can enjoy a 10 year period of protection where litigation in the matter of your trademark will actually hold up in a Chinese court.
We'd love to hear about any of your trademark stories in China...
Has your company gone through any similar setbacks? What are some of the more daring or quirky copies you've seen in China? Let us know in the comments section below...