[IP Academy] The mystery of trademark protection: Why can't your brand rights be used globally?

2025-05-28

When a Chinese company's products gain traction in overseas markets, rights holders often find that trademarks registered in their home country cannot prevent local counterfeiting. Behind this phenomenon is the basic principle of intellectual property protection - territoriality. In simple terms, trademark rights only cover the jurisdiction in which they are registered, and trademarks that are not registered in a country are usually difficult to obtain local legal protection.

This principle stems from the independence of the legislative sovereignty of States. Even if the same brand name is filed separately in China, the United States, and the European Union, three separate bundles of rights are actually obtained. For example, a Chinese new energy company once encountered a dilemma: its well-known trademark in China was preemptively registered by a dealer in a Southeast Asian country, resulting in the risk of infringement litigation when genuine products entered the market. Such cases remind us that brands need to systematically plan the trademark layout of their target markets before going overseas.

The current mainstream solution is to achieve multi-country coverage through the international registration system. The Madrid Agreement significantly simplifies the process by allowing applicants to designate multiple Contracting States at once to extend protection based on their national basis. However, two key limitations should be noted: first, the system does not change the territorial nature - each member state still examines registration in accordance with its own law; Second, some important markets (such as Canada and many South American countries) have not yet joined the system and need to apply separately.

In practice, enterprises can grasp three key points: first, give priority to the actual distribution of products and the country where the manufacturing base is located to avoid foundry squatting; Second, pay attention to the special regulations of various countries, such as the United States requires trademarks to be put into commercial use, and some countries in the Middle East need to submit Arabic translations; Finally, establish a dynamic monitoring mechanism to detect overseas squatting behavior in a timely manner. An intelligent hardware company successfully protected its rights and interests by raising objections during the announcement period of squatting in Thailand through the monitoring system.

A misunderstanding that needs to be clarified is that even if an enterprise has a well-known trademark in China, its overseas protection scope is still premised on local registration. Although the Paris Convention provides special protection for well-known trademarks, the criteria for recognition and enforcement still depend on the judicial practice of each country. Therefore, systematic global registration is still the cornerstone of brand internationalization.

Understanding territoriality principles is like navigating a map of intellectual property. Only by following the rules and drawing a clear trademark map can the brand value take root safely in the global market.