Whenever clients ask about filing a trademark in China via the Madrid System, my answer is simple: filing a national application directly with China’s own Trademark Office is better. The one-size-fits-all Madrid process makes registering a trademark in China seem easy. Really easy: all you have to do is check a box marked “China.” However, while Madrid applications are
Once or twice a month, my law firm’s international trademark lawyers have been contacted by companies whose China trademark registrations were botched by an online trademark service. In all instances, the trademark registration problems stemmed from online trademark services that purport to be able to register trademarks pretty much anywhere in the world, including China.
Our international IP lawyers are often called upon to help companies whose IP has been compromised or infringed upon. We have formulated the following basic checklist for handling these IP problems, be they international or domestic. 1. Identify the client’s IP problem This step is sometimes straightforward, but often the information our client is getting
China Distribution Contracts: Same-Same but Different Ever since COVID, our China lawyers have been seeing a big increase in foreign companies entering into distribution contracts with Chinese distributors, due mostly to the difficulties and risks foreign companies face when they go into China directly. Many of the companies that come to us to draft their
Yesterday, in How To Stop China-Based Domain Name Theft, we talked about what to do if someone from China (or pretty much anywhere else, for that matter) has stolen your domain name: Companies confronted with domain name theft oftentimes do not realize how relatively easy it can be to put a stop to it, even
Domain Name Trademark Infringement The integrity of a brand’s identity is paramount. Unfortunately, the rise of digital commerce has generated new forms of intellectual property challenges, notably domain name trademark infringement. This issue is especially prevalent for companies interacting with or manufacturing in markets such as China, where rapid registration of similar domain names by
As we often note on this blog, registering its trademarks in China is one of the key steps a foreign company must take when doing business there. When though should you apply to register your trademarks in China? As soon as China enters the conversation as a possible market and/or manufacturing or sourcing location, we
One of our China IP lawyers tends towards sarcasm, and in cleaning out my email stack I found this email: Another company that loves China so much that they have already given all their IP to a Chinese company with nothing in return. American and European companies seem not to realize that if they teach
As we have written a number of times, the essential first step in any China IP strategy is to register your trademarks with China’s Trademark Office. Because China is a first-to-file country, until you register a trademark in China you have no rights in that trademark in China. But a trademark registration alone goes only
I wrote the below article many years ago with Gregory Buyoff, a good friend, a brilliant international IP lawyer, and the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever known on Vietnam history. Intellectual Property Magazine published this article, but it no longer shows up on its website so I am running it here (with a few updates),
