From our experience managing the IP and licensing in China for some of the world’s leading cultural institutions (including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the British Museum in London) we’ve put together these five key steps on how to get the most out of your IP when you bring your brand to China: 1. With this trend in mind, we introduced "Egyptian Civilization" as one of our IP themes for 2019 and picked the Gayer-Anderson Cat, one of the best-known objects in the British Museum, to create a collection of customized prints and patterns. In line with this growing sophisticated market, Chinese consumers increasingly expect experiences and narratives in the retail environment. This is particularly important when our retailer partners introduce a licensed product to the market. Build relationships with retailers. Tip: Build relationships with the Alibaba Group and JD.com, to create hundreds of genuine products for your partners to sell on their platforms. Work closely with your retail partners to spot fraudulent use of IP when it arises on their site. Getting the right protection in place, taking the time to build relationships with retailers and developing relevant assets and experiences around your IP can significantly enhance its appeal to third party companies. We provided IP assets developed from a 16th century Italian Maiolica pottery plate, which is part of the permanent collection of the British Museum. In summary, while China’s reputation with IP rights has a chequered past, it shouldn’t deter ambitious businesses from taking steps to enter the market -- providing they do their research, get support in place on the ground and understand the culture of how Chinese consumerism is changing.
China has a chequered past with foreign IP. But companies are getting around that by developing IP assets — like a world-famous bronze cat.
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As the largest and, in my opinion, most exciting developing economy in the world, China is naturally an attractive market for U.S. businesses looking to expand overseas. However, one of the barriers to entry can be working out how to maximize the potential of your organization’s intellectual property (IP) there, while ensuring that it’s protected.
Related: A Woman Got Caught Allegedly Trying to Smuggle 102 iPhones Into China by Strapping Them to Her Body
China has made huge progress over the last decade combatting IP infringement; however, it’s fair to say the country still has a dubious reputation in this area — owing to IP thefts involving everything from corporate brands and fashion icons to Hollywood IP.
That said, the situation is improving all the time, and huge opportunities remain for international businesses entering the market — provided they have the inside scoop on the best way to manage and maximize their intellectual property in China.
From our experience managing the IP and licensing in China for some of the world’s leading cultural institutions (including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the British Museum in London) we’ve put together these five key steps on how to get the most out of your IP when you bring your brand to China:
1. Protect your IP.
Securing the correct IP protection in China can be a complicated business when you come at it from the outside. When our company starts working with overseas partners, we commonly discover that they lack the adequate protection to securely grow their enterprise in China.
Often, one of the first things we then do is assist them in getting the right trademark registrations and copyright filings. The important thing to remember here is that, despite the country’s reputation, there are a growing number of Chinese partners to help international companies get everything in place as seamlessly as possible.
Tip: Do your research and find the most appropriate IP partners for your brand. We work closely, for instance, with Jingtian & Gongcheng, Chinese specialists in art and cultural IP; and Sino-Faith IP Service Group, which has developed proprietary IP surveillance software.
2. Develop meaningful IP assets.
China is becoming a more and more sophisticated market and consumers there are increasingly looking for something original and different in the products they buy. With this in mind, once you’ve secured the correct IP registration, it’s not enough to simply put your logo and IP elements onto a product and take it straight to market. Instead, you need to focus on creating a suite of assets to…
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