How to Protect your Product from Counterfeiting with 360° Trademark Protection

Home | China Law Blog | How to Protect your Product from Counterfeiting with 360° Trademark Protection When companies come to my law firm to protect their brand names from Chinese copycats, our international trademark lawyers typically tell them that applying for such a trademark takes about a week, but actually getting the trademark takes about ten months. We then tell them that until they get their Chinese trademark, they will be pretty much powerless to stop companies in China from using their brand name. Ten years ago, very few batted an eye at this. E-commerce has changed that, such that now when one of our China trademark lawyers tells a client that securing their China trademark will take ten months, those who sell their products online (which is just about everybody nowadays) push back and want to know what they can do in the meantime to protect against copycats. Our response, simplified a bit, is to say that they need to focus on "building IP walls outside China." For example, if they are selling their product in the United States and in Italy, they should focus on protecting those two countries. One of the best ways to do this is by securing trademarks in those two countries (Italy and the United States) as quickly as possible. Though a U.S. and an Italy trademark will not help with trademark protection in China, it can still be valuable in getting offending ads taken down off Chinese websites such as Alibaba. If "your" product shows up on Alibaba and you have no registered IP, the odds of getting Alibaba to take it down from an Alibaba website are slim. If your product shows up on Alibaba and you have a registered Chinese trademark that is being infringed by something on an Alibaba website, the odds of your getting that offending advertisement taken down from Alibaba are incredibly good. If you have an Italy trademark and there is an ad on Alibaba clearly targeted at Italy that infringes on your Italy trademark, your odds of getting that advertisement taken down from Alibaba are decent, which is a whole lot better odds than if you did not have the Italy trademark at all. The same holds true for the United States. Of equal importance though is that if you have a United States trademark on your product you can use that trademark to try to keep the offending product from reaching the United States from China. You can do this by working with US Customs and Border Protection, which is authorized to block, detain, and seize incoming products that violate U.S. intellectual property rights. The EU and Italy have similar procedures. One of the best ways to get US Customs on your side in blocking incoming infringing goods is to secure a US trademark and then record that trademark with US Customs and Border Protection. If you record your trademark with US Customs, it will go into its database and if US Customs spots incoming product that infringes on your trademark, it will block the offending product and alert you of its arrival. The notice to you from US customs will usually include the names and addresses of the manufacturer, exporter, and importer. Once you get your China trademark, you should consider registering that with China Customs to get that government agency working for you on the China side to help prevent infringing product from leaving China in the first place. See How To Register Your China Trademark With China Customs. For effective IP protection, think 360°. Check Out Our China Law Services Share Twitter Facebook LinkedIn E-mail Comment Fred Rocafort Fred leads Harris Sliwoski’s intellectual property practice and is the coordinator of the firm’s international team. Much of Fred’s practice consists of helping cannabis businesses protect their brands. He also works with entrepreneurs and companies entering the Web3 space, a new frontier for IP law. Prior to joining Harris Sliwoski, Fred worked overseas for more than a decade, in both government and private sector roles. Fred is a regular contributor to the award-winning China Law Blog and Canna Law Blog. Fred began his career overseas as a U.S. consular officer in Guangzhou, China, where he advocated for fairer treatment of American companies and citizens in China and for stronger intellectual property rights enforcement. After entering the private sector, Fred worked at a Shanghai law firm as a foreign legal advisor and later joined one of the oldest American law firms in China, helping foreign companies navigate the Chinese legal environment. He also led the legal team at a Hong Kong-based brand protection consultancy, spending most of his time out in the field, protecting clients against counterfeiters and fraudsters in Greater China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. In addition to his IP work, as a native Spanish speaker, Fred works closely with different Harris Sliwoski teams on Latin America and Spain matters. Fred also provides advice to cannabis industry participants and other businesses on import and export transactions. Fred is an ardent supporter of FC Barcelona—and would be even in the absence of Catalan forebears who immigrated to Puerto Rico in the mid-1800s. Harris Sliwoski Attorney Read more posts [email protected] Read More Intellectual Property (IP) Related Posts September 15, 2026 Your AI-Drafted China Contract Says It Needs a Lawyer. Listen to It. September 11, 2026 Forensic Accountants in China Business Litigation: How True Numbers Can Tell the Wrong Story September 4, 2026 China NNN Agreement or Trademark Registration? You Usually Need Both September 1, 2026 AI Didn't Replace Lawyers. It Gave Us the 48-Page Contract. August 27, 2026 Do I Need a China NNN Agreement or a China Manufacturing Agreement? Usually Both. 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