Watermark
| Dealing with China? You really should read this. |
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19 June 2008 What many companies do not realise, however, is that the act of manufacturing branded products in China constitutes “use” of the relevant brand in China. This means that if another company has registered your brand in China, manufacturing in China will infringe that registration, and it can be very difficult to cancel a Chinese trade mark registration, even where you can prove prior use of your brand. We are aware of situations where Australian companies have faced the problem of potentially having to cease manufacturing in China, and find alternative suppliers in other countries (or cease sales in Australia), because another company had registered their brand in China. The Australian companies did not appreciate the need to register their trade marks in China. They assumed that they did not need to worry about registration in China because they were not selling their products in China. The message is simple. If your company’s products are manufactured and branded in China, you should register your marks in China. This is the case even if you do not sell products in China. For information about trade mark registration in China, please contact Peter Hallett at
or on (03) 9819 1664. |