How do I register a trademark in China?

Full Question How do I register a trademark in China?

Answer China's legal system is still coming into its own, evolving out of a communist system which has only recently taken issues of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) seriously. China also has a world-class production base at favorable pricing. Combine this with a rapidly growing economy and changing society where many are willing to do whatever is necessary to make a buck, and the resulting China marketplace (from a security standpoint) is full of indiscretions ranging from innocent reverse engineering to blatant knock-offs. Piracy of many copyrighted materials is widespread, and is widely noted in many western business publications that feature material about China. However, what is not often made apparent in the press is that registering IP in China is often straight forward and affordable. Plus, you need not be based in China to apply. I asked my friends at a local Shenzhen law firm (http://chinasourcinginfo.org/endorsed-service-provider) to give you a behind the scenes look at the steps and costs involved in registering a trademark in China.

Tip #1: Trademark your brand in China, even if there are no plans to sell the products in the PRC. Having done this, the court system is on your side should you face infringement by a supplier or competitor. From our experience at the CSIC, the Chinese court system generally favors the foreign party in these cases, as China wants to show the world that they are living up to WTO commitments. But you have to play by the Chinese trademark system and that means having your brand registered in advance as China is a "first to register" rather than "first to market" system.

Tip #2: To save costs you can register the text (your brand name for example) and logo together in a single application. But if your budget allows, it is better to register them separately. The flexibility you get from separate registration is that you may use the logo mark and word mark separately, whilst for a combination mark you can only use them together.