Trademark
The trademark classification system is divided between goods, in classes 1 – 34 and services, in classes 35 – 45. Classes are the umbrella for different products/services. Categories are a further breakdown within each class. For example, if you sold shampoo and your company name was “Beautiful Hair”, you would probably apply for a Class 3 (hair lotions) as a Trademark under “Beautiful Hair”. However, there could be another company called “Beautiful Hair” that sells under Class 8 (hair cutters). The Chinese government could approve both company names because they are under different classes. Sometimes it makes sense to look at all of the classes and possibly apply under more than just one. Your trademark service provider can provide you a list of classes.
The categories is a way to further classify your trademark. We typically recommend that you chose 10 categories for each trademark. Your trademark service provider can provide you a list of categories for your class.
Before you go through the entire Trademark process, it makes sense to see if your trademark is available. While the entire trademark process can take anywhere from 9-18 months, trademark availability can take just a few weeks. Your trademark availability search provider will typically provide you a report after those 2-3 weeks to tell you what company names/logos may be close to yours and will give you a judgment if they think the trademark will be successful, or not.
The typical timeframe in China for the filing process is 9-18 months. This will vary depending on the Chinese government. Your trademark service provider can give you an estimate with their process.
In the United States it is a “first to use” vs. China it’s a “first to file”. Therefore, a company could have been using a company name (or logo) for a long time in the United States but not filed yet and if another company files a similar name (or logo), the US may turn that trademark down because another company has been using it, even though they haven’t trademarked it yet. In China, they only look for who has filed for a trademark and not who has been using a name (or logo).
People who are looking to trademark their company name and their company logo, it’s best to search/file for two trademarks. If you file the words and the picture as one trademark, and one of them fails then the entire application will follow (wasting time and money). Sometimes you can get the words, but not the logo or vice versa. It may be better to have one or the other if you can’t get both.
Shipping
Full container load-typically the cost per pound (or space) is less expensive when you have a full container
Less than container load-typically the cost per pound (or space) is more expensive when you have less than a container
A seller makes a product available at a specific location, but the buyer has to pay the transport costs
HTS codes
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule code is a 10-digit import classification system that is specific to the United States. HTS codes are administered by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
A code with six digits is a universal standard (HS Code) and a code with 7-10 digits (HTS Code) is often unique after the 6th digit and determined by individual countries of import. The United States using the HTS code to determine tariffs.
if you change your HTS code, you need to confirm with your freight forwarder what the new tariff will be and make sure that it doesn’t change the classification when it comes to “hazardous” or “regulated” products.
Inspection
Tell your supplier before production that you will be hiring a third-party inspector. This may increase the quality of your products.
The advantage to a full-inspection is that it will find any flaws that are on your list of inspection criteria. However, a full-inspection will increase the cost of the inspection and could increase your lead time because of the long inspection time.
Sourcing
- Understanding customer requirements
- Reaching out to suppliers
- Ordering samples
- Negotiating MOQ and pricing
- Production
- Inspection
- Shipping
The timeframe for sourcing from start to finish varies quite a bit, depending on how well the suppliers understands your product, if the supplier has all of the necessary equipment or needs to outsource part of the production process, if raw materials are difficult to get hold of, if the supplier has made something similar, if a mold needs to be made, quality of your product, supplier backlog, inspection time, shipping time and the time it takes to get it into the warehouse that will ship the product to the end customers. A realistic timeframe is 3 months.
- Miscommunication because of language barrier
- Dealing in US currency instead of local supplier currency
- Appropriate documents (i.e. NNN) signed
- Dealing with custom delays
- Product is not researched enough by customer to understand cost to produce, ship and store vs. market value of the product
