"Chinese trademark law is still very much in the
process of evolution and the time it is taking to develop is causing
much vexation among international branded goods companies. They are also
still engaged in attempts to curb outright trademark and intellectual property
theft, which is supposed to have been largely stamped out, but as
anyone familiar with hawkers on streets of mainland cities knows, this
battle is far from over.
Hong Kong has better established and less complex trademark laws and rules but the local regime is hardly exemplary, as applications for trademarks are known to drag on for a long time and there seems to be a rather quixotic approach to what are regarded as being generic names, as opposed to specific names that apply to individual brands...
The issue of trademarks is one of the biggest aspects of intellectual property protection, which is climbing the agenda of both global trade talks and the concerns of individual companies."
