The Madrid Protocol can simplify a large international trademark portfolio, but China’s subclass system, five-year dependency rule, short refusal deadlines, and enforcement procedures create added risks. For companies that manufacture, sell, or enforce their trademarks in China, a direct CNIPA filing is usually the better choice.
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
China domain-name warning emails are usually sales schemes, but trademark warnings sometimes identify real applications and real deadlines. Here is how to tell the difference, verify the claim, and protect your brand without hiring the stranger who contacted you.
A China-based cybersquatter has registered a domain that copies your trademark or diverts your customers. Learn when to use the UDRP, China’s separate `.cn` dispute process, a demand letter, or litigation to recover the domain and stop the misuse.
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),
As we have written many times over the years, if you are selling goods into China, sourcing goods from China, or just doing business in/with China, you should probably register trademarks in China for your brand names and logos. China is a first-to-file country and it does not require evidence of prior use. This means
If it seems we have been writing often about China NNN Agreements, you would be right. We are doing so because we have had a troubling increase in companies coming to us after having lost their IP to their Chinese counter-party (usually their Chinese manufacturer) because the NNN Agreements they used were worthless or even
Before the Lunar New Year, Shanghai police cracked down on one of the largest subtitle groups in China, Renren Yingshi (YYeTs.com). The police arrested 14 people (not the actual translators but people who run the business). According to officials, Renren Yingshi is suspected of pirating more than 20,000 television shows and films and of earning
