Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2022
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Omnia Juncta in Uno: Foreign Powers and Trademark Protection in Shanghai's Concession Era

By: Laura Alfaro, Cathy Bao, Maggie X. Chen, Junjie Hong and Claudia Steinwender
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:85
ShareBar

Abstract

We investigate how firms and markets adapt to trademark protection, an extensively used but under-examined form of IP protection to address asymmetric information, by exploring a historical precedent: China’s trademark law of 1923. Exploiting unique, newly digitized firm-employee and firm-agent datasets from Shanghai in 1872-1941, we show that the trademark law, established as an unanticipated and Western-disapproved response to end foreign privileges in China, shaped firm dynamics and relationships on all sides of trademark conflicts. Western firms with greater dependence on trademark protection grew and raised brand investment, while Japanese businesses, most frequently accused of counterfeiting, contracted despite attempts to build their own brands. The trademark law also fostered relationships with domestic intermediaries, both within and outside the boundaries of Western firms, and the growth of the Chinese intermediary sector. At the market level, the trademark law did not reduce competition or raise brand prices, leading to a coexistence of trademarks and competitive markets and ultimately gains in consumer welfare. A comparison with previous attempts by foreign powers—such as extraterritorial rights and bilateral treaties—shows that the alternative institutions were broadly unsuccessful.

Keywords

Trademark; Firm Dynamics; Intermediaries; Intellectual Property Institutions; Trademarks; Intellectual Property; Laws and Statutes; Outcome or Result; Organizational Change and Adaptation; China

Citation

Alfaro, Laura, Cathy Bao, Maggie X. Chen, Junjie Hong, and Claudia Steinwender. "Omnia Juncta in Uno: Foreign Powers and Trademark Protection in Shanghai's Concession Era." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-030, November 2021. (Revised November 2022. Revise and Resubmit American Economic Review.)
  • SSRN
  • Read Now

About The Author

Laura Alfaro

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • April 2023
    • Journal of the European Economic Association

    The Real Exchange Rate, Innovation and Productivity

    By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu
    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts

    By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman
    • September 2022
    • Management Science

    Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences

    By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Farzad Saidi
More from the Authors
  • The Real Exchange Rate, Innovation and Productivity By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu
  • Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman
  • Health Externalities and Policy: The Role of Social Preferences By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Farzad Saidi
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College