Eugenia Lean (Columbia University)

By examining two early legal cases featuring the alleged counterfeiting of Xiangmao Honey Soap, this talk shows how the linguistic practices in Chinese commercial culture often stymied Western manufacturers and import companies’ attempts to pursue and prosecute suspected Chinese copycats. Xiangmao soap was featured in the first ever trademark litigation trial in China in 1889. A second case in 1919 that also featured the alleged counterfeiting of the Xiangmao brand then reveals how the issue of dialect were often the basis of wordplay and punning in Chinese trademarks, and that international trademark law was unable to accommodate these practices. Hardly marks that purposefully deceived in acts of “passing off,” so-called “spurious” marks aided knowledgeable and appreciative consumers in their wily acts of consumption and were part of a larger market of rogue knock-offs in China that eluded the emerging trademark regime in the early 20th century.