China Trademarks: The Case of the Shanzhai IP Agent

China trademarks. The rule is register, using someone real.

Just got a hard copy of The Sovereign Group’s 2015 China Market Entry Handbook. One of our China lawyers wrote the IP section for that handbook and our portion of it includes a very short case study, entitled, The Case of the Shanzhai IP Agent. Here is that “case study”:

A North American food company that had become quite successful selling its food product in China learned that a company in Beijing was selling counterfeits of its product. Believing it had registered its trademark in China, the North American company began preparing to sue the Beijing company. In the process of doing so, the North American company learned that while it had retained and paid a purported trademark agent to file a trademark, they had never received a trademark certificate, and the “trademark agent” had in fact taken their money and done nothing.

Without a registered trademark in China, the North American company was powerless to stop the counterfeiter. Its only option was to register its brand name as a trademark, wait more than a year until the trademark proceeded to registration, and then send out a cease and desist letter.

The best way to protect your brand name in China has not changed: register the brand name as a China trademark now, so that when you need to defend it, you already have the registered trademark in hand. And don’t be afraid to ask for references. Reputable service providers will not hesitate to give them.

Short and sweet and on the money….