Protection of well-known foreign marks in the USA and China

With the development of global economics in the modern era, trade marks have become a powerful tool for businesses to succeed in international markets. The protection of well-known foreign marks depends on international enforcement in different countries. In the 1990s, the US’s McDonald’s Corporation fought hard to protect its trade marks from a local infringer in South Africa before beginning to operate in that country.1 The ‘McDonald’s’ mark had been used by the US-based McDonald’s Corporation for 40 years, and consumers worldwide have associated the mark ‘McDonald’s’ with that US company.2 While that mark had never been used in South Africa, the court found that the ‘McDonald’s’ mark was so well known that its use by the local infringer would create consumer confusion as to who brands McDonald’s products.3 Internationally, the ‘territoriality principle’ normally governs the granting of trade mark rights to foreign companies.4 The...