China is simply a massive market growing at an astounding rate. The appetite for foreign brands and products is developing and evolving with every year. For many companies China is still considered to be an untapped resource, offering huge potential sales and market share. However, these companies are also wary about doing business here for a number of very good reasons. The possibility of trademark infringement is one very big reason. Over...

The following is a simplistic and very basic interpretation of what is going on with Apple’s trademark infringement case for the name “iPad” in China. The thoughts and views expressed here are my personal opinions. What can we learn from the Apple vs Proview ongoing case? In the early 2000’s Apple hired a company, Proview Taiwan, to purchase the trademarks for several product names in the Asia area, including in mainland...

Dave’s ayi turned up today with a brand new phone. You most likely won’t find this on the shelves at your local Carphone Warehouse. Apparently Nokia is being designed by Apple in California. Enjoy the pics, comments...

I was in Xiamen in Fujian province earlier in the year and took a walk along the pedestrian shopping street before enjoying a rare stroll along the nearby beach. I am usually too busy to enjoy the city whenever I go there so this was a treat. However on my walk of I came across this little beauty. It’s clearly an unlicensed Body Shop store. The products within appeared genuine and from Hong Kong but all signage and interior design was a...

  I was in Shanghai over the National Holiday and while I was there some friends suggested I check out the Shanghai International Carnival. After researching online (http://www.freij.com/news/ecs.aspx) and reading some press releases, I decided to give it a go. Happy Valley in Beijing and Shenzhen, though permanent fixtures, are good fun so logic dictates this carnival couldn’t be that bad. Ah, logic, I remember you…   We...

Spotted this on the train from TangGu/Tianjin to Beijing. I should point out though, there are legitimate Chinese language versions of Nat Geo to be found all around China. Nevertheless, I thought this was a pretty shameless attempt to cash in on an iconic brand and image that another mag has honed and used since 1888.