Owning An Authentic Choo Yilin Creation

 
Since the brand was founded ten years ago, every Choo Yilin creation has been, and continues to be, designed in our conservation shophouse in Joo Chiat, Singapore.

Over the last two years, our incredibly supportive network of clients and friends have given us feedback that more and more jewellery pieces have begun to look increasingly similar to Choo Yilin’s work, and urged us to do something about it.

We thought we’d compile a short summary of what the company has been doing with an equally supportive network of legal advisors. We hope that in doing so, we are able to address our community’s concerns about protecting Choo Yilin’s Intellectual Property (IP).

The brand often dedicates 18 months to conceptualising and creating our pieces, ensuring that the Asian heritage stories we so hold so dearly are told on a level they deserve. Anyone who purchases an authentic Choo Yilin piece not only receives a work of fine jewellery; our clients will own an emblem of heritage and the significant stories weaved with each design.

Protecting the brand’s IP ensures that we can continue devoting necessary resources to research and development. And it also honours all our clients’ commitment to our work – that your purchases are respected.  

Registration of Trademarks and Wordmarks

The most basic step we took was to register our brand name alongside our logo. In our case, because we are headquartered in Singapore, we went through the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). IPOS has been invaluably supportive in this journey, and this step is crucial; this step prevents another brand from selling their products under your name. It also prevents other brands from trying to get clients to associate your brand with their work.

Registration of Registered Designs and 3D Trademarks

We have also been registering the bulk of our brand’s work so that our work has legal protection. This means that the designs that you look to us for cannot be used and/or reproduced, and/or distributed without the company’s explicit permission, so you can rest assured that the Choo Yilin pieces you own remain authentic and exclusive.
 

The Support of a Community of Brand Guardians

Perhaps this is the one that we’re most grateful for because it was so unexpected. Our journey of IP Protection started completely organically – where clients and friends of the brand would send us photographs of products, packaging, or campaigns that they felt were increasingly similar, and almost identical to Choo Yilin’s. All of this information helped form the bedrock of our IP Strategy; without these well-meaning individuals who first started alerting us to these infringements, we would not have known where to start this journey.

We continue to appreciate any information from you, and want you to know that we are grateful beyond words. You can drop us an e-mail at hello@chooyilin.com, your identities will always be kept confidential.

Constantly, your love and support for the brand humbles us. We hope, in some way, this journey fuels you to chase your own paths to protect what is important, and to grow from each lesson life brings you.