Many Chinese seek Japanese celebrity names as trademarks for business

Saturday 27th June, 04:00 PM JST

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8 Comments

hepy1 at 05:14 PM JST - 27th June

yeah because for china Japan is the coolest and popular is like a de ja vu for china to be like Japan style.
sharky1 at 07:15 PM JST - 27th June

Nobody recognizes Chinese trademarks anyway, so it really doesn't matter what they do in China.
UnagiDon at 09:18 PM JST - 27th June

it really doesn't matter what they do in China

No, unless your name is Ayumi Hamasaka and you're a little unhappy with a product called "Ayumi Hamasaki Number One Lucky Jockstraps".
Betting at 11:05 PM JST - 27th June

This whole thing is just beyond silly. The things some people will do for a quick buck, or should we say yuan?
PepinGalarga at 12:23 AM JST - 28th June

"Celebrities" are no special than regular people. With all the cash they are making, they should have trademarked their "brand" abroad.

With the Madrid convention, this can be done in their home country, and multiple registrations can be carried out in one step for minimal cost.

There are some challenges to this. It's not so easy to trademark a name that may be in common use. And countries such as China do not enforce trademarks, but at least filing will be a way to receive some partial protection.
aj2o1 at 02:33 PM JST - 28th June

The copying is now going in the reverse direction from Japan to China, after Japan copied everything Chinese in the 8th century.
bushlover at 09:05 AM JST - 29th June

Few seek legally using the names the rest will just copy them anyway. China is the king of piracy. Even Canada has that problem with their own Chinese immigrants.
himasan at 04:35 PM JST - 29th June

this is a good idea, I have some suggestions, Taro Aso for a name of a toilet paper company, Smap for the name of garbage collection company