Very often companies making business in China wonder whether a
work of art shall be recorded before the competent authority or the
legal protection is automatically generated when the work itself is
created.
This is a very interesting question, also because its answer
goes – counterintuitively - into opposite direction of the
trademark protection.
Trying to clarify the copyright protection in China, we will
make comparison and reference to the trademark registration which
is probably a more known concept.
For trademarks, in China, the legal protection
is generated at the moment of the approval by the China National
Intellectual Property Office (CNIPA).
The validity of a trademark lasts 10 years from the registration
date and it is renewable - tendentially ad infinitum - for further
periods of 10 years. However, the trademark (if not well-known)
offers protection only to the goods identical or similar to those
designated in the application.
