Practical guides on registering, using and protecting trademarks in China.
A wine region, a tea mountain, a cured ham, a ceramic town — each carries a name that means something to a buyer abroad, and each name is worth money the...
Read articleA foreign brand owner files in a couple of classes, uses the mark on one product line, and thinks no further. Then a clearance search returns dozens of...
Read articleTwo refusals that look the same from outside A sign is refused in China, and the notice names a ground. Two files can look identical from the outside — the...
Read articleA detailed logo is not automatically a stronger mark Foreign applicants tend to spend the design budget on the artwork and the drafting budget on the goods...
Read articleWhy "well-known" is a finding, not a filing Foreign brand owners tend to arrive with the same assumption: that a well-known trademark is something a company...
Read articleWhy a Class 35 registration often does not do what its owner expects A company files in Class 35 because it has been told the class is the one to hold "just in...
Read articleForeign brand owners tend to treat containers as a purchasing decision — glass weight, closure type, label stock. In China the same container can become an...
Read articleA trademark application in China can collide with rights that never appear in the trademark register at all: a restaurant chain's trade name, a logo owned...
Read articleA priority claim does not add a right. It moves a date, and it moves it only for the goods the earlier filing actually named. Most foreign applicants find that...
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