Local Famous Trademarks in China: Towards Reasonable and Appropriate Governance

This study is anchored on two starting points: (1) intellectual property rights (IPRs) are private rights, yet they require government action such as registration and enforcement to ensure their protection; and (2) IPRs could be instrumental in achieving specific public policy goals. Establishing clear boundaries for governmental interventions in IPRs and differentiating between reasonable and appropriate actions and those that are excessive and unjustified is crucial for adequately exercising IPRs as private rights and for balanced and effective public governance. This thesis contributes to defining those boundaries by examining China’s local famous trademark (LFTM) system, a complex and long-standing instrument with numerous unresolved issues, and formulating policy recommendations to solve them purposefully. Given that similar governmental interventions occur outside China, the findings of this research have broader applicability.