Protecting your IP in Asia

A number of Asian countries, including Singapore, China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam are now parties to the International Trade Mark Registration system, the Madrid Protocol, which has greatly simplified the trade mark registration processes in those countries.

If you are considering moving into the dens of the Asian tigers make sure you are prepared and have the right legal ‘equipment’. It’s well worthwhile seeking advice from a qualified trade mark advisor.

Here are some of the key issues an experienced professional will work through with you, once you decide which countries are of interest to you:

*Whether your proposed trade mark is likely to be a registrable trade mark in those countries;

*Whether your proposed trade mark has any derogatory meaning or connotation in those countries;

*Whether your proposed trade mark needs to be ‘localised’ to suit local branding requirements or to remove unintended linguistic challenges;

*Whether there is a need to protect the trade mark in both English and the local language.

Once these issues have been ironed out to suit the local conditions, your trade mark advisor can arrange for searches in the targeted export countries to ensure the trade mark will not infringe any prior trade mark registrations.