My good friend and trademark lawyer extraordinaire, Mike Atkins, recently wrote Basics of Trademark Protection in Plain English on U.S. trademarks. Below I take what Mike said, and explain how it applies to China or not. Mike’s portion is in regular font and my portion is in italics. A. Trademark Enforcement Principles The main way
Michael Jordan just lost another China lawsuit in his ongoing effort to combat alleged trademark infringement in China. This lose highlights a point that must be familiar to even the most casual reader of this blog: Michael Jordan just lost another China lawsuit in his ongoing effort to combat alleged trademark infringement. This case, like
A number of our clients manufacture products that sell for relatively high prices due in large part to distinguishing characteristics of our client’s company or product. In other words, the exact kind of product counterfeiters love to copy. Not sure why, but we have been spending more time lately in helping our clients prevent counterfeiting
Renaud Anjoran over at the Quality Inspection Tips blog recently wrote on How your Chinese suppliers might become your competitors. Renaud provides excellent suggestions for preventing your foreign product supplier from competing with you, based on his notes from a talk by Paul Melkebeke, Samsonite’s Vice President for Asia. Melkebeke talked of how Samsonite protects
Ever since the New York Times did an article, Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia, on companies leaving China for Cambodia, there has been media and play and real life discussions on how “everyone” is leaving China for places like Cambodia or Thailand or Vietnam or Mexico or Indonesia or Taiwan. First, let’s look
China Distributor Relationships Make Sense, Especially Now My law firm’s China lawyers have written more product distribution agreements in the last three years than in the ten years prior. This is happening because foreign companies want to profit from China’s consumer and industrial markets, but they are wary of going into the country in a
One of the most common calls our China lawyers get is the one from someone saying they want to “start a business in China.” The first thing we do with that sort of caller is to seek to ascertain whether a China business is actually necessary. Forming and then operating a business entity in China
When we first started this blog way back in 2006, we would constantly write how if you want to protect your IP in China, you have to register your IP in China. Our thesis was (and is) that if you don’t bother registering your IP in China, you really have no right to complain about
Doing business in China? Register your trademarks before entering the market. Learn why China’s first-to-file system cost Ferrari its iconic horse logo—and how to protect your brand.
In China everything can and is faked, even the JeAbsolutely fascinating story in today's Washington Post, entitled, Sold on a Stereotype: In China, a genre of self-help books purports to tell the secrets of making money "the Jewish way". Seems the Chinese think very highly of Jews, both for their perceived ability as businesspeople, and for their honesty and family values. China has some 50+ books focusing on emulating the Jewish path to success.
