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The importance of having foreign trademark registered in Chinese
When westerns and global traders and companies think about international trade, English is of course perceived as the global tool to jump language barriers over the world and ease international relations and commerce enabling access to new markets.
However, is that assumption really applicable to China and the Chinese market? Is it really that simple?
According to the "World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision" work published by United Nations, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) population reached 1.404 million people in 2017. Moreover, China has not-so-long turned into the second world’s economy and its international influence is undeniable, especially in continents such Asia or Africa.
However, while over 1.000 million people in China speak Mandarin it seems that no more than 30-40 million actually speak English. Even though figures of English learners in China rise up to 300 million, most statistics about English actual speakers in the country point out that figure of 30-40 million, which is less than 3% of the population.
In spite of these numbers, many foreign companies are still too used to the “global language” that do not realize English language is not the best approach to target most of Chinese consumers and often wonders whether it is really necessary or useful from a marketing perspective to use their trademarks in Chinese language.
Well, considering what said above, brand owners should be reminded of the importance of having a Chinese language trade mark in China. Having the trademark translated in Chinese can be helpful not only for those Chinese consumers that do not speak and read the Latin alphabet fluently, but for any consumer. And at the same time it will help to protect and reinforce the strength of the trademark and brand awareness in the market.
So taking that into account, what usually happens to those who decide not to translate and protect their trademarks in Chinese?
In many cases, when a foreign trademark is not translated into Chinese and is publicly used by the owner, Chinese consumers make their own translation of the trademark and refer to it in Chinese. If the foreign company does not have an "official" translation and does not make a certain promotion of the trademark in Chinese, consumers will develop their own Chinese trademark and will use this to make reference to the company and products.
Moreover, when a brand owner does not develop a Chinese trademark and the translation is done by consumers on their own, it might be the case that different Chinese trademarks are developed by different groups of consumers. Indeed, there is not just one way to translate the trademark in Chinese, but several possible translations. In lacking clear indication from the trademark owner, there will be natural uncertainty, and each consumer might choose a different set of characters to refer to the brand.
For all these reasons, brand owners in general and foreign companies in particular need to carefully assess the relevancy of having their trademark translated into Chinese, and the impact of not doing so can have on their own brands and commercialization of their products.
Thus, in order to prevent those situations from happening they must protect such names used to identify their brands as a trademark as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will face the risk that a third party will do so first, which is also a quite common situation in China. If that happens it may be necessary to put in motion uneasy legal procedures to retrieve the rights to exclusively use such specific trademark from that third party.
On the other hand, where no Chinese name exists, the brand owner should devise and file one, and should ensure that it is consistently used by all local partners.
There are a variety of different options for devising Chinese character marks, such as a meaning-based translation, a sound-based translation (transliteration), a combination of both, or even something entirely unrelated to the English. Understanding the basic concepts of Chinese language can help to develop an effective translation of foreign trademarks.
Nevertheless, local advice is highly recommended to avoid risks, such as selecting Chinese characters with an unsuitable or inappropriate meaning for the brand, which can be a source of embarrassment or diminish market perception.
By considering the perception of their brand in the Chinese market via an adequate Chinese translation, brand owners will ensure that they retain control over their brand narrative and prevent damage or dilution of their brands.
HFG Law&Intellectual Property
