The first thing a (foreign) company should do before even considering winning the affection of 1.3 billion potential Chinese consumers is making sure that you own or apply for the trademark right to use your name and brand in China.
In our practice, we have seen too much money wasted on buying such rights from people or companies who outsmarted the ‘new kids on the block', often by maliciously registering ‘their' trademarks.
Forgetting to register their brand is probably the most common mistake made by international companies entering the Chinese market. Ten years ago, this issue already caused big MNCs launching consumer products in China plenty of headaches. Newcomers seem not to have learned much from their predecessors seeing that the latest wave of foreign companies to entering China still often forget to register their names and brands – after which they turn to us to resolve this critical issue.
