How To Globally (And In China) Protect Your Trademark
Now I know I am always writing on protecting trademarks in China, but that is because I have seen far too many companies make the mistake of believing they do not need to register their trademark in China either because they have registered it in the United States or because they are "just" manufacturing their product in China, not selling it there. Both beliefs are wrong and both beliefs can lead to the same result: someone in China being able to prevent you from using a name or mark you thought belonged to you.
Anyway, Laurel Delany, of the always very informative Global Small Business Blog recently did a post on global trademark protection, entitled, "Globally: Protect Yourself." The piece does a nice job emphasizing the steps companies must take to protect their trademarks overseas and it links to Ms. Delany's story in this month's Entrepreneur Magazine.
I actually have one tiny beef with the article though. It quotes US attorney Peter Sloane saying that "A pending [trademark] application in China confers no trademark rights, whereas in the U.S., it does." Mr. Sloane is absolutely right on this, but I fear this statement may lead people to infer that there is therefore no rush to apply for a trademark in China because it takes years after applying for one to get one. What should be added to Mr. Sloane's statement is that the first to apply for a trademark gets priority to the trademark.
Comments
Getting protected in China is one thing, branded or not, protected or not. You still have to enforce your protected marks as we have continued throughout only to be RIPPED OFF from ______________[deleted by CLB] Factory. James_________are all professional scam artists and importers need to know in advance that if you do ANY business with _______________factory they are going to purposely rip your products off while makeing intentional and serious manufacture errors on your products with the goal to steal your products and beat you to the register! _________ is SCAM, FRAUD and they will STEAL from you regardless if you have protected trademarks in either country. BE WARNED in advance! Best Regards
Posted by: Roger | October 19, 2008 9:14 AM
China: Will the Chinese government be able to find jobs for several hundred thousand unemployed people? I think when I was in China in 2004, in the Guanshou there were buildings being built everywhere. At that time, the growth production was building too fast and I think China couldn't keep up that pace up for the long term. China was building too fast and now it's going on a downward cycle. Like the U.S. and China, growth has been hurt by the U.S. and China. It may take 5 years for each of our countries to start over and rebuild the infastructer and build these business. Also with China building coal plants every 2-5 years, the air you breath could have been done right so the companies that sold the toys all over the world, learned from what had happened
and don't keep doing what your production has done in the past. All companies in China and other countries will follow a code of doing what you're producing, don't cut corners to save a few dollars but build the factories right and the government keep the pressure on these companies so what happened with the toy factory won't happen again. Do it right the first time and have the governemt control the quality. China has too many people who work at $2.00 a day or less. You need the quality of everything built in China to be watched over by the government quality control. China needs to have watch-dog groups so the companies being built, the products being built, adheres to the strictest quality the government can do. I welcome to here your thoughts on this matter.
Sincerely, David R. King
Posted by: David King | October 19, 2008 2:33 PM