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China IP: Neither Hong Kong Nor Macau Need Apply.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Interesting post over at China Business Law on registering IP in Macau, got me to thinking of a company who came to me last year for assistance in pursuing trademark infringement litigation in China. As I always do in these situations, I first asked this company was whether it had actually registered its trademark in China. I ask this because many times American companies wrongly believe they have trademark protection in China simply because they have it in the United States. The company VP answered yes. We talked for another 20 minutes or so and then I asked him to send me all relevant documents. It was not until I got the documents that I discovered this company had not registered its trademark in China at all; it had registered it in Hong Kong. Our client had wrongly assumed that filing in Hong Kong constitutes filing in China. Registering your trademark in China does not constitute registering your trademark in either Hong Kong or Macau, and vice-versa. Oh, and while we are at it, registering your trademark in English in China does not constitute registering it in Mandarin or Cantonese, even in direct translation. For more on registering trademarks in China, check out, "China Trademarks -- Do You Feel Lucky? Do You?"

Full post as published by China Law Blog on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).