Protecting Trademark Rights in China
Our Phoenix lawyers recently prevailed in a trademark opposition in China. We filed an application for registration in China that was allowed and opposed by a business much larger than our client. After we prepared and filed a brief arguing in favor of registration, the opposition was dismissed. Our opponent appealed the dismissal and we prepared and filed an opposition brief. The appeal was dismissed three weeks later.
This success demonstrates the benefit of having a lawyer who can protect clients’ trademark rights anywhere in the world and underscores the importance of understanding variations in individual countries’ laws. When deciding a dispute, The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) considers only the goods or services listed in a pending US application or issued registration, while the Chinese Trademark Office considers the actual goods or services and channels of trade in Chinese commerce used by the parties. Knowing this information enabled our lawyers to argue that, although the goods listed in our client’s application were very similar to those listed in the opponent’s registration, the goods actually sold by our client and the opponent were dissimilar and sold to different customer bases.