Hopefully, this thread is in the right place. It does pertain to trademark laws, but there is more to it than that.
I work for a company whose headquarters is in China. We have recently opened a new location in North America, which is where I work. We are making a lot of changes to our image right now, including:
- New website
- New brochures
- New logo
- New name
We are changing our name because our original name is VERY Chinese, which is a big turnoff to potential customers in our industry. We are using the same acronym however, only we are giving it American sounding words.
For example, we all know GE stands for General Electric. But, what if GE actually stood for something else in China that was hard for Americans to read and say, so GE decided to make itself known in North America as General Electric, simply to appeal to new customers? If you understand what's being asked here, then you understand what we have done.
We use the same acronym as the one our Chinese headquarters uses, but that acronym stands for 2 different things, depending on which continent you are in. Originally, we all really liked this idea, and began to design our website and business cards around it. We are in the process of trademarking our new logo and name as well. It is all sort of a learning process. Unfortunately, there is no book specifically on this subject (at least not on Amazon. I checked).
But, here are some of our questions:
1. Who do our customers pay? Our new name is not really a "business" per se, and therefore unable to receive payments. It simply a marketing face that we wear - nothing more.
2. Should we register this new logo and name as a business with a tax ID, etc? Or, could we just tell our customers upfront that the face we're wearing is only for marketing, and that they should write their checks to our Chinese headquarters?
3. Who would be a good person to talk to about this subject in my area? I've spoken to an IP lawyer, but he wasn't sure that this was completely within his expertise.
Any thoughts you can give would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I work for a company whose headquarters is in China. We have recently opened a new location in North America, which is where I work. We are making a lot of changes to our image right now, including:
- New website
- New brochures
- New logo
- New name
We are changing our name because our original name is VERY Chinese, which is a big turnoff to potential customers in our industry. We are using the same acronym however, only we are giving it American sounding words.
For example, we all know GE stands for General Electric. But, what if GE actually stood for something else in China that was hard for Americans to read and say, so GE decided to make itself known in North America as General Electric, simply to appeal to new customers? If you understand what's being asked here, then you understand what we have done.
We use the same acronym as the one our Chinese headquarters uses, but that acronym stands for 2 different things, depending on which continent you are in. Originally, we all really liked this idea, and began to design our website and business cards around it. We are in the process of trademarking our new logo and name as well. It is all sort of a learning process. Unfortunately, there is no book specifically on this subject (at least not on Amazon. I checked).
But, here are some of our questions:
1. Who do our customers pay? Our new name is not really a "business" per se, and therefore unable to receive payments. It simply a marketing face that we wear - nothing more.
2. Should we register this new logo and name as a business with a tax ID, etc? Or, could we just tell our customers upfront that the face we're wearing is only for marketing, and that they should write their checks to our Chinese headquarters?
3. Who would be a good person to talk to about this subject in my area? I've spoken to an IP lawyer, but he wasn't sure that this was completely within his expertise.
Any thoughts you can give would be appreciated.
Thanks.
