How Supreme Court advice is changing trade mark squatting in China
31 July 2012
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Emma Barraclough, London
Trade mark squatting is high on the list of problems faced by foreign companies that do – or want to do – business in China. So how have a series of judicial opinions issued by China’s top court late last year been helping IP owners?
It’s a dishearteningly common phenomenon: companies enter the Chinese market only to discover that their trade mark has already been registered.
Chivas, Hermès, Land Rover and US basketball players are among those who have experienced the indignity of trying to haggle with Chinese squatters and trade mark officials to win the right to use their names in China.
The country’s first-to-file rules make overseas brands an easy target for forward-thinking squatters. Their difficulties are compounded by the high evidentiary requirements demanded by Chinese officials before they will deem overseas marks famous in China, denying them the additional protection that well-known status offers unregistered marks....
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