In today’s blog post, we will take a look at how SMEs can protect the interior design of their shops, which can be as important as protecting their brand and other types of IP.
When Brent Hoberman, founder of online interior design and furniture store Mydeco.com, made a trip to China one man was particularly keen to meet him. When they met, the man explained that he wanted to launch a web business but had no idea how to do it until he found Mydeco.com and copied it. He only wished to express his appreciation personally to Mr Hoberman.
In 2011 the residents of Kunming, a city in the South-Western region of China were delighted to find an IKEA shop there. The copycat store is an enormous, multi-level shop that sells modern IKEA-like furniture and even copies the distinctive blue and yellow branding. The residents realized it was a fake, but have little choice as the closest real IKEA is in Chongqing, 940km away.
Store layouts, colours and designs become synonymous with a brand, so imitation of a store interior is very damaging to companies. At times it is increasingly difficult to separate the real from the fake. Continue reading “How to Protect Interior Designs of Shops in China” »
Your IP in the Chinese Automotive Industry
Businesses in Europe have increasingly benefited from Customs authorities acting to prevent counterfeit products from entering their borders – seizures of products infringing on others intellectual property (IP) make news stories around Europe every week. Not many businesses, however, realise that unlike most countries the Chinese Customs authorities not only have the power to examine and seize criminal imports, but also exports. China Customs have the authority to protect IP rights by confiscating infringing goods and imposing fines on infringers. If the infringement of IP rights exceeds a certain threshold, then the Customs authorities will also arrange for criminal proceedings to be brought against the infringing party.
Prior trade mark registrations, also called ‘bad-faith registrations’, are a significant problem that many European companies encounter in China. This process commonly involves a Chinese company first registering the trade mark of a foreign company in China with the express intention of selling it back to the foreign company at an inflated price. Finding out that a Chinese company has registered a bad faith trade mark is one of the biggest complaints of European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) trying to enter the Chinese market. These prior registrations can limit the foreign company’s freedom to operate by restricting its ability to enter the China market or even to source goods from China.