How Should Your Brand Fend Off Copycats?

What should you do when someone registers your trade mark before you?

You've invested time and money in building your brand, eventually it's gained traction in your home market. Everything is looking upwards and now you are eyeing other countries to establish your brand's presence. To your surprise, someone in another country has registered a trade mark very similar to yours a long time ago. In your eyes, they are blatantly selling copycats of your service / products.

How do we solve this?

The case of New Balance vs New Barlun in China provides some answers on how to handle situations like this. The case was particularly difficult because the copycat filed their application in 2004 long before China had taken off as a major market for foreign brands.