How to stop pirate/mocking of your product in China?

Ma Jun, Chinese trademark lawyer

majun@100ybf.com

WhatsApp/Wechat/Mobile: +8618922206544

Price for application: 250 USD per class only, search and consulting for free, we charge only when you decide to file.

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It is a real concern of a lot of my clients that their design would be “stolen” by working with a Chinese partner.

It is the worldwide rule that if you do not protect your intellectual property rights, you cannot call mocking “stolen”, because you have allowed the mocking by your action of waiver. So in this article, I would guide you about what protection is needed for your product:

1. Design Patent

If you are going to protect the ornamental part/appearance of a product, you need to consider protection of design patent in China. Design patent is especially useful when you are trying to protect products like clothes, bottles, toys, household appliances that has a special shape and appearance. Like this television box has acquired design patent protection, so no one may create a product with similar appearance:

2. Trademark

Trademark aims at protecting your brand. China applies the first to file system, namely who files first will get the trademark. There is very limited protection for prior use, but the use has to be restricted in China, and on a substantial level. So applying trademark of your brand would be a very useful strategy to protect your brand in China.

3. Copyright

Copyright is the only right that is protected worldwide, namely if you create it first in your own country, it is protected from the date it exists. But the key point is, how to prove you have created it? All evidences overseas needs to go through a very complicated process to be admitted in China. A copyright registration, namely to claim copyright in the government of China at or prior to the time you come to China, may help solve the problem efficiently.

4. Patent and Utilities

If your product has a very special structure of function, you may need to consider protection of Patent or Utilities. Patent and utilities aim at protecting a special structure or process of a product. Like this phone holder, it has the structure to hold the phone by magnetic force, this is new to a phone holder, therefore this is a patent attached to it:

5. Trade Secret

If you want to protect the design or structure as confidential information, I would recommend a Non-disclosure agreement with your partners, sometimes NNN agreement, namely Non-disclosure, Non-circumvention and Non-Competition agreement. The agreements would help you protect your ideas by contractual obligations.