Despite major improvements in China’s IP laws and regulations in recent years, counterfeiting is still commonplace in the country and European SMEs wishing to do business in China need to adopt robust IP strategies in order to succeed on China’s lucrative market. In today’s blog post, we are taking a closer look at what are some extra IP protection measures besides registering your IP in China that European SMEs, engaged in cosmetics industry, can take to minimize the risks of counterfeiting.
Introduction
As with companies in any economic sectors, cosmetics firms have much to gain from early protection of their IPR. Registering IP with Chinese authorities and customs before beginning any type of business activity in the country potentially saves SMEs lot of money as being able to build strong cases against any local firms which may try to steal their IP is only possible when IP is registered in China. Many would-be infringers, however, will move straight to counterfeiting and begin to create knockoff products in the hopes of profiting from SMEs hard work. In these cases, early IP registration is not always enough. Instead, complementary to early IP registrations, SMEs should also adopt a strategy which seeks to defeat counterfeiters through both attrition (by making counterfeiting extremely difficult to accomplish) and offensive action (by coordinating with authorities to conduct raids and launch investigations to halt infringement).
“Soft” Prevention Methods: IPR registrations, online sweeps, and consumer education
An SME’s first step in fighting counterfeiting should always be prevention, halting counterfeiters before they have a chance to create fake products, which will erode an SME’s profit margins and public goodwill. To this end, nothing is more effective than registering IP early. Registering trade marks, industrial designs, patents, etc. with the relevant Chinese authorities can give SMEs powerful legal recourses in the case of an infringement. For larger counterfeit manufacturers with proper factories capable of churning out thousands of counterfeit products a day, the risk of seizure of assets by administrative agencies or customs and awards of damages (or jail time) from People’s Courts pose a significant deterrent. Continue reading “Dealing with Counterfeiters in China’s Cosmetics Market” »
As more and more European SMEs embrace the popular e-commerce concept in China, they are also confronted with online counterfeiting problems. Today’s blog post discusses how European SMEs can monitor online selling sites and how they can start the notice and take down process to remove counterfeits from the most famous Chinese online e-commerce sites like Taobao and Alibaba. 
Geographical indications (GIs) are any type of symbol, mark, etc. which is used to identify the country, region, or area from which goods originate and to which is assigned a given reputation. For example, Champagne is one of France’s most famous GIs, and goods marked as Champagne must be produced in the Champagne region and are reputed to be of high quality. Similar products not from the area must content themselves with descriptions such as “Made in Champagne-style” or “sparkling wine.” Malaysia boasts some indigenous GIs, such as Sarawak Peppers and Sabah Seaweed. In this article we’ll be looking at how you can protect your GIs in Malaysia.
Copyright in Malaysia is governed by the Copyright Act (1987) and the Berne Convention (to which Malaysia acceded in 1990). As a member of the Berne Convention, Malaysia recognises a wide variety of artistic works which are copyrightable, including literary, artistic, and musical works, sound recordings and films, drawings, computer codes, and more. All artistic works receive protection for the form of the work’s expression—meaning, for example, that your code is protected, but you cannot prevent someone from writing different code which accomplishes the same thing by using copyright.