China Wails At IP Squatters From Hell

So, if we dig deep enough we find the Communists are getting a dose of their own medicine as “copycats are coming for China’s hit brands?” Seems PRC’s “companies are attracting imitators & trademark squatters” from hell if not Thailand.

As the WSJ article by Sha Hua tells us, “For years, Western companies complained about Chinese copycats. Now, the copycats are coming for Chinese companies.” Explained international law specialist Catherine Lee: “You are more at risk if you are actually successful & famous” with selling your crap, er, goods outside your own country’s borders. Other lawyers interviewed by the WSJ said that inquiries from Chinese companies shooting for intellectual property alone has risen sharply in recent years. For instance, “There were nearly 6.2 million trademark registrations in China in 2022, TRIPLE the amount compared to 5 years earlier,” at least, according to data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration. Meanwhile, China has strengthened the home teams with higher patent infringement penalties & shortened time to sue for them in court. So, instead of 280K civil suits in 2018, there were 430K in 2022.

Case in point, nearly two decades ago, USA’s Starbucks fought a knock-off coffee-shop outfit from Shanghai and won after a long battle. But, fast forward to now as China’s Luckin Coffee, which “knocked Starbucks off its top spot in the Chinese coffee market, is fighting against a look-alike abroad, including Thailand. What’s that Chinese proverb again? “What goes around comes around?

Davd Soul