IP insurance for China-made own-brand products
Yes, consider it if an intellectual property dispute could disrupt your own-brand business. Ask a specialist broker to match cover to your products, rights and markets before trouble arises. Check enforcement, defence, damages and validity separately. Cambridge China Bridge can help organise factory-side product records.
Start with the business exposure
Ask whether you could fund a dispute while continuing to order stock and serve customers. Identify what makes the range valuable: its name, appearance, technical features or artwork. Then discuss the exposure with a specialist insurance broker.
Use protecting your IP and tooling for the sourcing safeguards. This guide adds the insurance decision: which disputes you want funded, what remains your responsibility and how to prepare a usable application.
Ask for each type of cover separately
The IPO guidance distinguishes enforcement and infringement defence from damages and validity cover. Ask the broker to mark each as included, excluded or subject to a separate extension in the proposed wording.
Describe concrete scenarios: a competitor copies your packaging; someone alleges your product infringes their rights; you lose an infringement case; or someone challenges the validity of your rights. Ask whether each scenario is covered, whose legal costs are included and whether damages share the legal-expenses limit.
Apply before a problem emerges
The IPO says before-the-event cover is available only before the alleged infringement has occurred and before a possible claim is known or ought to be known. Do not treat a new policy as a solution for an existing allegation.
Prepare a rights list, product descriptions, intended markets, ownership records and a dated history of any concerns. Discuss existing correspondence openly with the broker. Use checking an own-brand name or logo to prepare questions for your IP adviser rather than assuming an insurance application checks the name.
Read exclusions against your supply chain
Expect exclusions and an excess. Ask for a written explanation of any cost-sharing requirement, the total claim limit and limits within it. Check whether legal expenses, damages and related disputes draw on the same allowance.
Ask the broker to confirm the insured business, products, rights, territories and dispute venues. Explain that manufacture takes place in China and list your sales destinations. Ask specifically about supplier-related disputes, contractual promises to customers, deliberate copying, existing allegations and changes to the range. Treat these as questions about the wording, not assumed exclusions.
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Plan how a claim would work
The IPO warns that costs incurred before notifying the insurer, or without its express agreement, cannot be recovered. Keep the notification instructions accessible and ask how to obtain approval before commissioning dispute work.
Before accepting cover, ask who chooses the lawyer, what evidence of likely success is needed and who controls settlement decisions. Keep approved artwork, drawings, sample records and factory correspondence together. Cambridge China Bridge's staff in China can help organise sourcing records; ask your broker and IP adviser to assess cover and legal strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Should I buy IP insurance for my own-brand range?
Consider it if a dispute could interrupt stock purchases or customer service. Give a specialist broker your product, rights and market details, then compare the wording with the risks you want covered.
Does infringement defence include damages?
Do not assume it does. The IPO lists defence and damages as distinct cover types. Ask for written confirmation of both and how their limits interact.
Can I insure after receiving an infringement letter?
Do not expect before-the-event cover to fund that dispute. Tell the broker about the letter and ask your IP adviser how to respond.
Will the policy cover disputes involving my Chinese factory?
Ask the broker to confirm against the wording, naming the factory relationship, manufacturing location, relevant rights and possible dispute venues. Do not infer cover from a worldwide label.