Choosing a Chinese Brand Name: Transliteration, Translation and Squatting Risk

Every foreign brand that sells in China ends up with a Chinese name. Either the brand owner chooses one, or consumers, the press and distributors invent one. If the owner has not chosen and registered a Chinese name in advance, someone else may register it first, and getting it back can take years of litigation. This guide explains the ways to create a Chinese brand name, what to check before choosing one, and how to register it so that squatters cannot take it.

Why the Chinese name must be registered

China is a first-to-file country, and registering a mark in Latin letters does not automatically protect its Chinese equivalent. Chinese consumers refer to brands by their Chinese names; e-commerce searches, press coverage and distributor advertising all use them. If a third party registers the Chinese name first, the brand owner may be unable to use it in China even though it owns the Latin mark, and may even face infringement claims. Michael Jordan (乔丹) and Penfolds (奔富) are among the foreign brands that spent years in disputes over Chinese names others had filed.

Three ways to build a Chinese name

• Transliteration: characters chosen for their sound, syllable by syllable. The link to the original is clear, but there are many characters for each sound, so meanings have to be screened, and the name should work in both Mandarin and Cantonese.
• Translation: the meaning of the brand rendered in Chinese. Easy to understand and remember, but with no audible link to the original name.
• Sound plus meaning: a name that sounds close to the original and also carries a positive meaning. The most common approach, and the hardest to do well.

What to check before choosing

1. Meaning and puns: each character alone, the name read together and the name read in major dialects must carry no negative or comic meaning.
2. Trademark search: run a full search for every candidate in the target sub-classes, including homophones and visually similar characters.
3. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan: separate trademark jurisdictions that use traditional characters and need their own searches and filings.
4. Company names and online handles: check company names, domains, WeChat official accounts and e-commerce store names.

How to register it

1. File the Chinese name on its own as a word mark, not only combined with the Latin name or a logo.
2. Cover every relevant sub-class for the core products, plus related classes that squatters tend to target.
3. File before entering the market, exhibiting at trade fairs or signing distribution agreements.
4. Use one Chinese name consistently across channels; every variant in use needs its own registration.
5. Set up a watch after filing, and oppose similar Chinese-character applications within the 3-month opposition period.

For what a search covers and misses, see Before You File in China; for other points foreign applicants should know, see eight things to know before filing in China.

J&C Intellectual Property Agency (JCIPO), founded in 2008, is a CNIPA-recorded trademark agency and a member of the China Trademark Association. We search and register Chinese brand names for foreign owners, see our trademark services. Patent filings are handled through an affiliated patent agency.