When registering your trademark in China, it is important you choose your China trademark classes wisely and not choose to register in too many or in too few China trademark classes.

Unlike the United States, you do not need to prove “use” for a China trademark application to proceed to registration, and once a trademark is registered you do not have to prove you are still using trademark to be able to maintain or renew the registration for that trademark. Foreign companies have come to realize

Your China distribution contract should contain provisions that protect your brand name in China.

Close your eyes, and imagine that when you open them you have been magically transported to another country and you are inside a McDonald’s. How do you know you’re in a McDonald’s? Surely you would know without having to see the name McDonald’s or the famous Golden Arches logo. Would you even know that you

I attended an excellent IPWatchdog webinar this past week on trademark squatting, presented by Ai-Leen Lim of AWA Asia. You should watch the whole thing, but here are some thoughts and takeaways. Trademark squatting is one of the biggest problems when it comes to intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in China. Basically, squatting occurs when

If you truly want to protect your content in China, register your copyright in China

Get your China trademark now, not later.

No two China trademark strategies are the same, but one thing is pretty much a constant: You should register the company’s original English name. Before we go on, a clarification: I use “English name” as shorthand, but these names are often in other languages, or simply be a random collection of Latin letters. Names in