Start a conversation

China market

Register your trademark in China before you start showing it around

Rights generally go to the first party to file, not the first to use. That single difference from European practice causes most of the trouble.

France → China

A European company assumes that using a brand creates a claim to it. In China the register decides, and the register rewards whoever got there first — including someone who saw your product at a trade show.

What to file

  • The Latin-script mark, as you use it.
  • The Chinese-character version — including the one customers will invent if you do not choose one.
  • The classes that match what you actually sell, plus the adjacent ones where counterfeits appear.

The Chinese name is a decision, not a translation

Phonetics, meaning and availability all have to work at once. If you do not choose, the market will choose for you — and you will end up registering someone else's nickname for your brand, or fighting over it.

This is one of the few pieces of China preparation that is cheap, fast and entirely under your control. There is no good reason to postpone it.

Keep reading on this.

China marketDistributor, agent or your own team: choosing how to sell in ChinaThe real question is not which is cheapest. It is who ends up owning the customer relationship — and that is very hard to reverse.China digitalLocalise, don't translate: what that actually meansA translated page answers questions a Chinese buyer is not asking, in an order that does not match how they decide.China marketWhat entering the Chinese market actually costs in the first yearNot a price list — nobody can give you one honestly. A map of where the money goes, so you can build your own number and spot the lines people forget.

If this raised a question about your own project, tell us where you are — the first conversation usually clarifies more than a proposal.

Talk about your China project →Read the full guide