Chinese Language Trademarks

Home , Chi (unit), Hokkien, Romanization, Shanghainese, Swire, Zhen (surname)

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The Chinese language 1

2.1 Chinese Dialects 1

2.2 Chinese characters 1

2.3 Use of Radicals 2

2.4 Multi Character Words 2

3. Simplified and non-simplified characters 3

4. Romanization of chinese characters 3

4.1 Pinyin 3

4.2 Wade Giles 3

4.3 Cantonese Romanisation 4

5. Chinese trademarks 4

5.1 Transliteration 4

5.2 Protection of Simplified and Non-Simplified Trademarks 4

5.3 Translation 4

5.4 Development of a Distinctive Chinese Trademark 5

6. Conclusion 5

Our China Intellectual Property Practice 6

1 Chinese language trademarks

1. INTRODUCTION 2.1 Chinese Dialects For companies doing business in Asia the proper There are numerous dialects of Chinese. The most selection and use of Chinese language trademarks and widely spoken are Mandarin (Putonghua), trade names is becoming increasingly important, if not Cantonese, Hokkien and Shanghainese. Cantonese, crucial. The development and opening of the mainland and Shanghainese are spoken in Guangdong Chinese market has provided a great impetus for (Canton) and the Shanghai region respectively. companies to focus on the development and use of Hokkien is spoken in Fujian province and Taiwan. Chinese language trademarks for their company names Cantonese and Hokkien are also widely spoken by and products. The vast majority of Mainland Chinese overseas Chinese in South East Asia. The spoken identify companies and their products solely by their forms of these dialects are incomprehensible to Chinese trade names and trademarks. speakers of other dialects. Chinese language trade names and trademarks are Mandarin (Putonghua) originates from the area also important in other jurisdictions where Chinese is around Beijing and is spoken as the principal dialect used, such as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, in northern China. Mandarin has been established Malaysia and Vietnam. This is so even where the since the early ages of the Chinese empire as the majority of people are familiar with Roman script and national language of China (the language of the can read English language trademarks. Chinese mandarins, i.e. imperial officers and civil servants). people will generally tend to use the Chinese brand "Putonghua" means the "common language". Where name for a product rather than the English brand name. Mandarin is not the principal dialect, such as, for example, in Guangdong and Shanghai, Mandarin This note provides a brief introduction to Chinese will be spoken as a second dialect. In most Chinese language trademarks and attempts to provide schools and universities, Mandarin is the medium of explanations of some of the main difficulties faced by education. Mandarin is also spoken by many businesses and individuals when dealing with Chinese overseas Chinese as a first or second dialect. trade names and trademarks. Due to the influence of local dialects, the Mandarin First, the Chinese language and Chinese characters spoken in the different regions of China varies with are described. Second, the differences between different words being used to describe the same simplified and non-simplified characters are explained object. The difference is more marked between the followed by a brief description of the main ways in mainland of China and Taiwan which have been which Chinese is Romanised. Finally, the ways in which separated for over 50 years. Generally, however, foreign companies have developed Chinese language these differences do not cause serious problems for trade names and trademarks are considered. communication.

Despite the differences in the spoken language, 2. THE CHINESE LANGUAGE because of the way in which the Chinese language is written with characters to which different sounds The Chinese language is one of the oldest languages can be ascribed in each dialect, each dialect can be spoken in the world. In addition to mainland China, written with the same Chinese characters. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, Chinese is also spoken by large communities of overseas Chinese in When writing official or formal documents, Chinese numerous countries including Singapore, Malaysia, will use Mandarin grammar and sentence structure. Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. However, when writing in the vernacular, there can There are also substantial overseas Chinese be substantial differences in the grammar and communities in the USA, Canada, Australia and the sentence structure used. In order to represent words United Kingdom. not used in Mandarin, locally developed characters are also sometimes used. The Chinese language has also had a strong influence on a number of Asian languages, in particular, 2.2 Chinese characters Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. Chinese characters are ideograms. They originated as hieroglyphics and have over time been simplified

into an easily written form. Each character Eye 目 represents an object or idea and is essentially a stylised drawing of that object or idea. Hand 手 Chinese characters are not written phonetically. It is Tree: 木 not possible to know how a character is pronounced Sun: 日 merely by looking at it, although, one can often make an educated guess based on similarities to Moon: 月 other characters. In order to learn to read and write Chinese characters it is necessary to memorise the Woman: 女 way a character is written and its pronunciation in (b) Complex Representations whichever dialect one is learning to read. More complex objects or ideas may also be Chinese characters have developed in four main represented by the combining two or more ways to describe items. characters together into one character, such  Some characters are simple, stylised, as: representations of objects. These are generally Forest: 森 Three trees together common things such as parts of the body, the sun, the moon and trees. Man: 男 A field being carried by strength  Some characters are more complex Good: 好 A woman and a child together representations of objects or abstract ideas. These more complex characters are made up Trouble: 困 A tree stuck in a box of two or more characters which give an idea of Safe: 安 A woman under a roof the meaning.

 One part of a character will give an indication as to a class of objects to which an object 2.3 Use of Radicals belongs (these are called "radicals") such as, plants, metals or parts of the body and another A "radical" is often used to indicate that an object is character will be used to indicate the part of a group of words, such as body parts, water approximate sound, based on the way in which and metal. the second character is normally pronounced. Iron: 铁 the first part of the character for iron is the  In some less common cases, characters are radical, which is used to indicate some type of metal assigned to give the pronunciation of an item, or metal related objects. Characters created with the to objects or ideas for which a sound exists, but metal radical include: for which no specific representation has been Silver 银 developed. Copper 铜 Finally, in order to deal with more complex ideas, two or more characters will be combined to make a word. 2.4 Multi Character Words Set out below are examples of each of these types of characters: More complex words are then created by the combination of two characters. For example: (a) Simple Representations China: 中国 The following Chinese characters represent each of the following things: Middle + Country (that is, the Middle Person 人 Kingdom) Mouth 口 Communism: 共产主义

Common + Property+ Main + Idea 4. ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS (Main + Idea = ism) The Romanisation of Chinese characters causes more problems than the use of simplified characters. There Airplane: 飞机 Fly + Machine are two main systems for Romanisation of Mandarin: Car: 汽车 Gas + Vehicle Pinyin and Wade Giles. In addition, in Hong Kong there is a formal system adopted for the Romanisation of the Cantonese pronunciation of characters. 3. SIMPLIFIED AND NON-SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS 4.1 Pinyin A further complication to understanding Chinese characters is the use of simplified characters. A number The Pinyin system of Romanisation is used in of characters have been simplified for centuries. In Mainland China and Singapore. This system is 1958, in an attempt to expand literacy in mainland gaining wider acceptance worldwide. Pinyin has China, the government of the People's Republic of been developed to make use of the 26 letters of the China introduced standardised simplifications of English alphabet to pronounce Chinese. The numerous Chinese characters. These simplifications pronunciation of most vowels follows the English have also been adopted in Singapore. (Japan has also pronunciation. However, a number of consonants do adopted its own form of simplifying characters). Taiwan, not match the English pronunciation. Hong Kong, Macao and most overseas Chinese still In particular, the following consonants are use traditional characters. pronounced differently. A simplified character has the same meaning as its Pinyin Approximate Pronunciation non-simplified counterpart. Simplified characters are best thought of as being akin to simplifications in the C Ts spelling of English words that have been adopted in the Q Ch United States of America, such as "harbor" for "harbour" and as "ize" instead of "ise". X Hs Four basic methods have been adopted to simplify Zh J characters:  common simplifications used in the past 4.2 Wade Giles  the use of only one part of a more complex The Wade Giles system of Romanisation was character developed in the 19th Century. It is used principally  the simplification of radicals in Taiwan in a form modified from the original. The Wade Giles system relies on the use of aspirated  in rare instances, the adoption of a new consonants as a guide to pronunciation. Under the character Wade Giles system, the capital of China is written Examples of simplified characters, with their non- Peking, but is in fact pronounced Beijing because in simplified equivalent are: the Wade-Giles system P is pronounced B, K is pronounced J. Non-simplified Simplified When used correctly, the Wade Giles system Political Party 黨党 arguably provides a closer pronunciation of Mandarin than Pinyin. However, for most foreigners Country 國国 the system's complexities mean that it does not Vehicle 車车 provide a good guide for the pronunciation of Chinese.

4.3 Cantonese Romanisation Problems can arise however, when, as is common, a name is transliterated into Cantonese due to a As the dialect most commonly spoken in Hong Kong market presence in Hong Kong and then is Cantonese, the government of Hong Kong has subsequently used in Mainland China. The adopted a form of Romanisation based on the pronunciation of the name in Mandarin can be Cantonese pronunciation of the characters. This is substantially different. used in Hong Kong but not elsewhere. A slightly different version of Romanisation of Cantonese For example, McDonald's uses a transliteration（麦 pronunciation is also used in Macao. 当劳） which in Cantonese approximates to MakDonNo. In Mandarin this becomes Maidanglao. 5. CHINESE TRADEMARKS In some cases companies have attempted to add a meaning to the name as well. For example, Pizza Since the mid 1800's when western companies first Hut uses a transliteration,（必胜客）which in started trading with China, companies have developed Cantonese approximates the pronunciations of Chinese language trademarks and trade names. Some Pizza Hut and means "the customer must win". In companies have put much effort into developing Mandarin, the pronunciation does not sound like trademarks and trade names with good connotations. Pizza Hut, but does mean the customer must win. Other companies have left it to their agents or distributors in Hong Kong or Taiwan to develop their trademarks and trade names. This has and can cause 5.2 Protection of Simplified and Non-Simplified immense problems, particularly when a name that Trademarks sounds good in Cantonese does not have the same sound or connotations in Mandarin. As simplified characters are the same characters as the non-simplified version, in general, a trademark There are three basic strategies that companies use to registered in simplified characters should prohibit the choose appropriate Chinese language trademarks and use of another party of the non-simplified characters trade names. These are: and vice versa. In mainland China, this is accepted  Transliteration law. In Hong Kong and Taiwan there is no clear provision to this effect.  Translation

 Development of a distinctive Chinese trademark. 5.3 Translation

Foreign companies also attempt to translate the 5.1 Transliteration meaning of the company's trade name or trademark. Transliteration is the most common method used by Companies which have translated their trademarks foreign companies to develop Chinese language are generally companies with generic or descriptive trademarks and trade names. Transliterations names. approximate the name of the company or its Examples of companies which have translated their products. Such marks add a cachet of foreignness to trademarks are American Express, United Airlines the Chinese trade name or trademark. and American Standard. Transliterations are generally used for invented words or surnames which do not have another There are a number of dangers with translating meaning. trademarks. Firstly the translation may not accurately reflect the full English meaning of the Transliterated names are often created by putting trademark. For example, American Express uses a together characters that approximate the sound of translation（美国运通）which means "American the English name. Generally, attempts are made to Transportation". This does not fully express the select characters with good meanings to transliterate meaning of "Express" in American Express's name. the name.

Conversely, for other companies, the translated trademark may all too accurately reflect the original name and not translate the years of product positioning which has given the name cachet beyond its pure meaning. For example, American Standard uses the name "Meibiao" (美标) which translates into American Standard but does not have any of the extra connotations of the trade name American Standard.

5.4 Development of a Distinctive Chinese Trademark Some companies have adopted completely new trademarks with no relation to their English trademarks. These are either companies which have been based in Asia a long time, such as Hong Kong companies Jardines (怡和), Swire (太古) and Hong Kong Bank (汇丰), or recent arrivals, which have made the effort to develop new trade names or trademarks. Such trademarks are generally developed in consultation with advertising agencies after carrying out surveys in the target markets to ensure the acceptability of the name in major dialects. Coca- Cola for example uses the Chinese trademark 飞雪 (Flying Snow) for its English brand BonAqua.

6. CONCLUSION The development and use of Chinese language trade names and trademarks by foreign companies needs much thought and consideration. With the continuing growth of the Chinese market, it is essential that companies put into place proper systems to develop Chinese trade names and trademarks that are appealing to consumers in all regions of China. Failure to do so can be fatal to a company's potential to exploit its brand, may cost it much money, and waste considerable time in developing a strong market presence. We recommend that companies entering the Chinese market develop a formal policy for the creation of Chinese trademarks and trade names to ensure that a consistent approach is adopted and that valuable Chinese trademarks and trade names are developed from the outset.

For further information, contact the Hogan Lovells IP OUR CHINA INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PRACTICE team in China: With more than 50 full-time IP lawyers and

professionals in Hong Kong and Mainland China, Contacts: Hogan Lovells maintains one of the largest and most

experienced teams of IP professionals in the China Beijing region, based at our offices in Beijing, Shanghai and

Hong Kong. Helen Xia Partner As one of the few international law firms with an IP [email protected] agency licence in China, we operate a domestic IP T +86 10 6582 9580 agency in Shanghai with a branch office in Beijing. The agency enables us to handle IP prosecution and trade Shanghai mark/copyright litigation directly for our clients. Additionally, most of our Greater China-based lawyers Feng Zhen* are locally qualified and bilingual with in-depth Partner knowledge of the local legal and business environment [email protected] and language(s). T +86 21 6122 3826 We advise on all aspects of contentious and non- Hong Kong contentious intellectual property law. Hogan Lovells' China IP practice is consistently awarded a first tier Eugene Low ranking in IP matters by rating agencies such as Partner Chambers, the Legal 500 and Managing Intellectual [email protected] Property. T +852 2840 5907

*Partners or Directors of the Hogan Lovells Intellectual Property Service Co. Ltd

Last update in October 2016

General update in January 2018

This Client Note is written as a general guide only. It should not be relied upon as substitute for specific legal advice.

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