Guilherme Campos Discusses IP Protection with the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce

On October 25 2021, Guilherme Campos, Shenzhen-based International Business Advisory Manager and intellectual property (IP) lawyer, was a speaker at the webinar Intellectual Property: Critical Issues in China organized by the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce (CICC).

In an increasingly digital and interconnected world, intellectual property protection poses new challenges to which foreign invested entities in China must respond with efficient and innovative tools. As the newly elected Vice-Coordinator of CICC’s IP Working Group, Guilherme shared the current IP protection landscape in China as well an outlook for the development of the country’s IP systems.

Guilherme provided an in-depth explanation of the importance of trademark registration and named a few real-life cases of how famous western brands suffered battling with local trademark squatters when they could have taken proper preventive measures to safeguard their brands.

“The law in China follows the first to file system, which means the first person to register a brand obtains the rights regardless of creation or use by a different business owner. In most other regions that practice first to file, there are varying degrees of recognition for the goodwill built by a prior creator and user of the brand. Other countries, for example the US, use the first to use system that recognizes an unregistered brand being used as a trademark and confers rights on the owner although these are typically weaker than the equivalent registered rights. Therefore, in the case of China, it is important to register your trademark, even before you are thinking of investing or doing business in the country”, noted Guilherme.

This webinar is the first in a series of activities organized by the IPWG. We look forward to Guilherme delivering more insights regarding EU-China IP protection in upcoming events. If you would like to schedule a call with Guilherme to discuss your IP protection or other business challenges, please contact him via guilherme.campos@dezshira.com.

Our latest resources on IP protection:

• Article: How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in China？
• On-demand webinar: How to Protect your Intellectual Property in China: A Comprehensive Guide

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