What Every Startup Need to Know About IP in China (opens in new tab)

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I'm curious about copyright infringement in china and what practical options there are. Hope it's not too OT.

We're building an anatomy learning platform[0], and produce original illustrations and videos that cost us a lot of time and money to create. When we see copies on US or EU website we can use DMCA or EU takendown notices, which usually work. In China our emails were pretty much ignored...

Now we're not some huge company, we're a small bootstrapped startup which isn't even ramen-profitable yet (mostly due to large expenses on content-creation). We cannot even afford a lawyer locally, let alone someone who can represent us in China. I'm wondering if anyone has some tips or experience in this area?

(all being said, the number of infringements we know about is pretty small, but it's worrying nonetheless)

[0] www.kenhub.com

China is many things, but one of those is practical. They're planning for a future in which they're not just a low-cost manufacuring hub (much of that is indeed already leaving China for places like Vietnam). To that end, they're making a very concerted effort to modernize their legal system, importing many ideas from the U.S. (e.g. they have American legal academics helping reform areas like the law of evidence) and introducing twists of their own (e.g. lightweight arbitration for small civil disputes).

> Chinese trademark registration costs are typical internationally.

To the OP, this sentence does not parse or I fail to understand what you mean with it.

Great article. Thanks for sharing your experience

Thanks for information about trademarks. What about utility, utility models and designs? Can it be protected in China?

Interesting to see the tides changing. Whether the IP laws are enforced is another story.

Are hardware+software startups like fitbit & withings copied as well?

Very helpful and something we have worried about as well.

Very helpful - thanks!

nice