No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Under the Eagle’s Wings: The Coca-Cola Company’s Trademark Protection and Its Dilemmas in China (1930–1949)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2025
Abstract
In the 1920s, Coca-Cola successfully registered both its English and Chinese trademarks in China. Its product strengths, experience with trademark enforcement, and the legal privileges it enjoyed under extraterritoriality all contributed to its ability to combat counterfeits and defend its brand. Yet the company failed to align its trademark protection efforts with local conditions in China. Cultural differences between China and the United States, the uncertainties brought by war, and the structural limitations of Chinese commercial law introduced new challenges. Coca-Cola lacked targeted responses to these issues and operated without reliable local partners in its enforcement efforts. Consequently, it encountered increasing difficulties in protecting its trademarks. This article demonstrates how cultural, wartime, and legal factors profoundly shaped trademark protection for multinational corporations abroad. It argues that attention to local specificities in overseas markets proved essential for effective trademark enforcement.
Information
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Business History Conference
References
Bibliography of Works Cited
Arnold, Julean. China Through the American Window, Shanghai: The American Chamber of Commerce at Shanghai, 1932.Google Scholar
Benedict, Carol. Golden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550–2010, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise, Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Directory of the Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry. Directory of the Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry, New York: Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry, 1948.Google Scholar
Mengxiong, Dong, ed. Zhongguo jindai caizhengshi·Jingrongshi [The Fiscal History of Modern China·Financial History], vol. 2, Kunming: Yunnan University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Elmore, Bartow J. Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.Google Scholar
Li, Yang. Meiguo zhuhua fayuan yanjiu(1906–1943) [Research on the U.S. Court for China (1906-1943)], Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2016.Google Scholar
Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It, New York: Basic Books, 2013.Google Scholar
Shandong difang shizhi bianzuan weiyuanhui [Shandong Provincial Local History Compilation Committee], ed. Shandong shengzhi qinggongyezhi [Shandong Provincial Gazetteer – Light Industry Volume], Jinan: Shandong People’s Publishing House, 1993.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, ed. The Minutes of Shanghai Municipal Council 28, Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2001.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, ed. Shanghai zujiezhi, Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2001.Google Scholar
Tedlow, Richard S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America, New York: Basic Books, 1990.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 1,1886–1923, 1st ed. 1923.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 2,1923–1930, 1st ed. 1939.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 3, 1931–1938, 1st ed. 1939.Google Scholar
Shangen, Sun and Wen, Wen, ed. Xu Tingzuo Nianpu changbian [The Chronological Biography of Xu Tingzuo], Ningbo: Ningbo Publishing House, 2019.Google Scholar
Willoughby, Westel W. Foreign Rights and Interests in China, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1927.Google Scholar
Zhongmin, Zhang, ed. Jingji lishi chengzhang [Economic History of Growth], Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Zhongguo gongye jingji yanjiusuo [China Industrial Economics Research Institute], ed. Gongshang shouce zengding ban [Revised Edition of the Industrial and Commercial Handbook], Zhongguo gongye jingji yanjiusuo, December 1947.Google Scholar
“Coca-Cola Company v. the Koke Company of America et al.,” The United States Reports 254 (1920): 143–147.Google Scholar
“Records of the United States Court for China,” American Journal of Legal History 1, no. 3 (July 1957): 234–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“The United States Court for China,” American Bar Association Journal 27 (1941): 544–546.Google Scholar
Bickers, Robert. “Shanghailanders: the Formation and Identity of the British Settler Community in Shanghai 1843–1937,” Past & Present 159, no. 1 (1998): 161–211.10.1093/past/159.1.161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Ning Jennifer. “Aspirin in China: Trade Mark Disputes Between China’s Pharmaceutical Industry and I.G. Farben, 1936–49,” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 59 (2008): 97–155.Google Scholar
DuBois, Thomas David. “Branding and Retail Strategy in the Condensed Milk Trade: Borden and Nestlé in East Asia, 1870–1929,” Business History 65, no. 5 (2023): 902–919.Google Scholar
Grove, Linda. “Technology Transfer, Imitation and Local Production: the Soap Industry in Early Twentieth-Century Tianjin.” In Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History, ed. and, Kazuko Furuta Linda Grove, Singapore: Springer, 2017, 161–182.10.1007/978-981-10-3752-8_9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersen, Jacob E., and Hemphill, C. Scott. “The Coca-Cola Bottle a Fragile Vessel for Building a Brand,” in The Cambridge Handbook of Marketing and the Law, ed. Gersen, Jacob E. and Steckel, Joel H., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023, 361–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lean, Eugenia. “The Making of a Chinese Copycat: Trademarks and Recipes in Early Twentieth-Century Global Science and Capitalism.” Osiris 33, no.1 (2018): 271–293.10.1086/699920CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Pui-Tak. “Riben rendan zaihua de shichang celue jiqi yu zhongguo rendan de jingzheng [The Marketing Strategy for Japanese Jintan in China and Its Rivalry with Chinese Rendan],” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 89 (2015): 85–124.Google Scholar
Lopes, Teresa da Silva, and Casson, Mark. “Brand Protection and the Globalization of British Business,” Business History Review 86, no.2 (2012): 287–310.Google Scholar
Moazzin, Ghassan. “Electric Pioneers: Nationalist Lobbying, Technology Transfer, and the Origins of the Chinese Electric Lamp Industry, 1921–1937,” Enterprise & Society 25, no. 1 (2024): 213–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motono, Eiichi. “Anglo-Japanese Trademark Conflict in China and the Birth of the Chinese Trademark Law (1923), 1906–26,” East Asian History 37 (December 2011): 9–26.Google Scholar
Peng, Xiaoliang. “Fang Yexian yu zhongguohuaxuegongyeshe,” in Shanghai zhizao: huangpujiangpan de zhongguo pinpai [Made in Shanghai: Chinese Brands on the Banks of the Huangpu River], ed. Shanghai Center of Local History, Shanghai: Shanghai University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Van Der Eng, Pierre. “Turning Adversity into Opportunity: Philips in Australia, 1945–1980,” Enterprise & Society 19, no. 1 (2018): 179–207.Google Scholar
Wang, Zejun. “Supplying Affordable Beverages to GIs: Coca-Cola Production and Provision in the China-Burma-India Theatre,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (July 2025): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, Mira. “When and Why Brand Names in Food and Drink?” in Adding Value: Brands and Marketing in Food and Drink, ed. Jones, Geoffrey and Morgan, Nicholas J., London: Routledge, 1994, 15–40.Google Scholar
Xiang, Zenan. “Wuzhou zhizaochang yu riben diguozhuyi de douzheng,” in Gongyejiaotong [Industry and Transportation], ed. Hanmin, Wu, Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 1999.Google Scholar
Xu, Guomao. “Chen Nade suobande Minyong hangkong gongsi [The Civil Aviation Company Established by Claire Chennault],” in Jiuzhongguo de gongshang jinrong [Industry, Commerce, and Finance in Old China], ed. Quanguo zhengxie wenshiziliao weiyuanhui [The Cultural and Historical Data Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference], Hefei: Anhui People’s Publishing House, 2000.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jiayan. “Beijing renmin shipinchang, quchenshi qishuichang, kekoukele [Beijing People’s Food Factory, Watson’s Soda Factory, Coca-Cola],” in Wenshi ziliao xuanbian [Selected Anthology of Cultural and Historical Materials], ed. Beijingshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Beijing Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, 1985, 291–299.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jiayan. “Shanghai qianjing de quchenshi qishuichang [The Relocation of Watson’s Aerated Water Factory from Shanghai to Beijing],” in Beijing Gongshang shihua [A Historical Account of Commerce and Industry in Beijing], ed. Beijingshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Beijing Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Beijing: China Commercial Publishing House, 1989, 120–126.Google Scholar
Yu, Jingde. “Yingshang shanhaiguan qishuigongsi [The British-owned Shanhaiguan Aerated Water Company, Ltd.],” in Tianjin wenshiziliao[Selections of Tianjin’s Cultural and Historical Materials], ed. Tianjinshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Tianjin Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 2006, 211–222.Google Scholar
Canada Law Reports
Google Scholar
Coca-Cola Overseas
Google Scholar
Dagongbao
Google Scholar
Daobao
Google Scholar
Dianyinghuaju
Google Scholar
Dongfangribao
Google Scholar
Fengbao
Google Scholar
Guangbao
Google Scholar
Huaqiaoribao
Google Scholar
Jingbao
Google Scholar
Pinbao
Google Scholar
Qiuhaitang
Google Scholar
Qushenribao
Google Scholar
Shangbiaogongbao
Google Scholar
Shangyezazhi
Google Scholar
Shenbao
Google Scholar
Sifagongbao
Google Scholar
The China Press
Google Scholar
The China Weekly Review
Google Scholar
The North China Desk Hong List
Google Scholar
The North-China Daily News
Google Scholar
The North-China Sunday News Magazine Supplement
Google Scholar
The Red Barrel
Google Scholar
The Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury
Google Scholar
The Shanghai Times
Google Scholar
The Trade-Mark Reporter
Google Scholar
Tianxia
Google Scholar
Tiebao
Google Scholar
Wenhuibao
Google Scholar
Wuxiandianribao
Google Scholar
Xinwenbao
Google Scholar
Zhenbao
Google Scholar
Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei.Google Scholar
Beijing Municipal Archives, Beijing.Google Scholar
Hoover Institution Archives, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Second Historical Archives of China, Nanjing.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia.Google Scholar
Arnold, Julean. China Through the American Window, Shanghai: The American Chamber of Commerce at Shanghai, 1932.Google Scholar
Benedict, Carol. Golden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550–2010, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise, Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Directory of the Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry. Directory of the Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry, New York: Far East-America Council of Commerce and Industry, 1948.Google Scholar
Mengxiong, Dong, ed. Zhongguo jindai caizhengshi·Jingrongshi [The Fiscal History of Modern China·Financial History], vol. 2, Kunming: Yunnan University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Elmore, Bartow J. Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.Google Scholar
Li, Yang. Meiguo zhuhua fayuan yanjiu(1906–1943) [Research on the U.S. Court for China (1906-1943)], Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2016.Google Scholar
Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It, New York: Basic Books, 2013.Google Scholar
Shandong difang shizhi bianzuan weiyuanhui [Shandong Provincial Local History Compilation Committee], ed. Shandong shengzhi qinggongyezhi [Shandong Provincial Gazetteer – Light Industry Volume], Jinan: Shandong People’s Publishing House, 1993.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, ed. The Minutes of Shanghai Municipal Council 28, Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2001.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, ed. Shanghai zujiezhi, Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 2001.Google Scholar
Tedlow, Richard S. New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America, New York: Basic Books, 1990.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 1,1886–1923, 1st ed. 1923.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 2,1923–1930, 1st ed. 1939.Google Scholar
The Coca-Cola Company. Opinions, Orders, Injunctions, and Decrees Relating to Unfair Competition and Infringement of Trade-Mark, vol. 3, 1931–1938, 1st ed. 1939.Google Scholar
Shangen, Sun and Wen, Wen, ed. Xu Tingzuo Nianpu changbian [The Chronological Biography of Xu Tingzuo], Ningbo: Ningbo Publishing House, 2019.Google Scholar
Willoughby, Westel W. Foreign Rights and Interests in China, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1927.Google Scholar
Zhongmin, Zhang, ed. Jingji lishi chengzhang [Economic History of Growth], Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Zhongguo gongye jingji yanjiusuo [China Industrial Economics Research Institute], ed. Gongshang shouce zengding ban [Revised Edition of the Industrial and Commercial Handbook], Zhongguo gongye jingji yanjiusuo, December 1947.Google Scholar
“Coca-Cola Company v. the Koke Company of America et al.,” The United States Reports 254 (1920): 143–147.Google Scholar
“Records of the United States Court for China,” American Journal of Legal History 1, no. 3 (July 1957): 234–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“The United States Court for China,” American Bar Association Journal 27 (1941): 544–546.Google Scholar
Bickers, Robert. “Shanghailanders: the Formation and Identity of the British Settler Community in Shanghai 1843–1937,” Past & Present 159, no. 1 (1998): 161–211.10.1093/past/159.1.161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Ning Jennifer. “Aspirin in China: Trade Mark Disputes Between China’s Pharmaceutical Industry and I.G. Farben, 1936–49,” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 59 (2008): 97–155.Google Scholar
DuBois, Thomas David. “Branding and Retail Strategy in the Condensed Milk Trade: Borden and Nestlé in East Asia, 1870–1929,” Business History 65, no. 5 (2023): 902–919.Google Scholar
Grove, Linda. “Technology Transfer, Imitation and Local Production: the Soap Industry in Early Twentieth-Century Tianjin.” In Imitation, Counterfeiting and the Quality of Goods in Modern Asian History, ed. and, Kazuko Furuta Linda Grove, Singapore: Springer, 2017, 161–182.10.1007/978-981-10-3752-8_9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gersen, Jacob E., and Hemphill, C. Scott. “The Coca-Cola Bottle a Fragile Vessel for Building a Brand,” in The Cambridge Handbook of Marketing and the Law, ed. Gersen, Jacob E. and Steckel, Joel H., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023, 361–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lean, Eugenia. “The Making of a Chinese Copycat: Trademarks and Recipes in Early Twentieth-Century Global Science and Capitalism.” Osiris 33, no.1 (2018): 271–293.10.1086/699920CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Pui-Tak. “Riben rendan zaihua de shichang celue jiqi yu zhongguo rendan de jingzheng [The Marketing Strategy for Japanese Jintan in China and Its Rivalry with Chinese Rendan],” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jikan 89 (2015): 85–124.Google Scholar
Lopes, Teresa da Silva, and Casson, Mark. “Brand Protection and the Globalization of British Business,” Business History Review 86, no.2 (2012): 287–310.Google Scholar
Moazzin, Ghassan. “Electric Pioneers: Nationalist Lobbying, Technology Transfer, and the Origins of the Chinese Electric Lamp Industry, 1921–1937,” Enterprise & Society 25, no. 1 (2024): 213–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motono, Eiichi. “Anglo-Japanese Trademark Conflict in China and the Birth of the Chinese Trademark Law (1923), 1906–26,” East Asian History 37 (December 2011): 9–26.Google Scholar
Peng, Xiaoliang. “Fang Yexian yu zhongguohuaxuegongyeshe,” in Shanghai zhizao: huangpujiangpan de zhongguo pinpai [Made in Shanghai: Chinese Brands on the Banks of the Huangpu River], ed. Shanghai Center of Local History, Shanghai: Shanghai University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Van Der Eng, Pierre. “Turning Adversity into Opportunity: Philips in Australia, 1945–1980,” Enterprise & Society 19, no. 1 (2018): 179–207.Google Scholar
Wang, Zejun. “Supplying Affordable Beverages to GIs: Coca-Cola Production and Provision in the China-Burma-India Theatre,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (July 2025): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, Mira. “When and Why Brand Names in Food and Drink?” in Adding Value: Brands and Marketing in Food and Drink, ed. Jones, Geoffrey and Morgan, Nicholas J., London: Routledge, 1994, 15–40.Google Scholar
Xiang, Zenan. “Wuzhou zhizaochang yu riben diguozhuyi de douzheng,” in Gongyejiaotong [Industry and Transportation], ed. Hanmin, Wu, Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 1999.Google Scholar
Xu, Guomao. “Chen Nade suobande Minyong hangkong gongsi [The Civil Aviation Company Established by Claire Chennault],” in Jiuzhongguo de gongshang jinrong [Industry, Commerce, and Finance in Old China], ed. Quanguo zhengxie wenshiziliao weiyuanhui [The Cultural and Historical Data Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference], Hefei: Anhui People’s Publishing House, 2000.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jiayan. “Beijing renmin shipinchang, quchenshi qishuichang, kekoukele [Beijing People’s Food Factory, Watson’s Soda Factory, Coca-Cola],” in Wenshi ziliao xuanbian [Selected Anthology of Cultural and Historical Materials], ed. Beijingshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Beijing Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, 1985, 291–299.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jiayan. “Shanghai qianjing de quchenshi qishuichang [The Relocation of Watson’s Aerated Water Factory from Shanghai to Beijing],” in Beijing Gongshang shihua [A Historical Account of Commerce and Industry in Beijing], ed. Beijingshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Beijing Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Beijing: China Commercial Publishing House, 1989, 120–126.Google Scholar
Yu, Jingde. “Yingshang shanhaiguan qishuigongsi [The British-owned Shanhaiguan Aerated Water Company, Ltd.],” in Tianjin wenshiziliao[Selections of Tianjin’s Cultural and Historical Materials], ed. Tianjinshi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui [Tianjin Municipal Committee for Historical and Cultural Materials], Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Publishing House, 2006, 211–222.Google Scholar
Canada Law Reports
Google Scholar
Coca-Cola Overseas
Google Scholar
Dagongbao
Google Scholar
Daobao
Google Scholar
Dianyinghuaju
Google Scholar
Dongfangribao
Google Scholar
Fengbao
Google Scholar
Guangbao
Google Scholar
Huaqiaoribao
Google Scholar
Jingbao
Google Scholar
Pinbao
Google Scholar
Qiuhaitang
Google Scholar
Qushenribao
Google Scholar
Shangbiaogongbao
Google Scholar
Shangyezazhi
Google Scholar
Shenbao
Google Scholar
Sifagongbao
Google Scholar
The China Press
Google Scholar
The China Weekly Review
Google Scholar
The North China Desk Hong List
Google Scholar
The North-China Daily News
Google Scholar
The North-China Sunday News Magazine Supplement
Google Scholar
The Red Barrel
Google Scholar
The Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury
Google Scholar
The Shanghai Times
Google Scholar
The Trade-Mark Reporter
Google Scholar
Tianxia
Google Scholar
Tiebao
Google Scholar
Wenhuibao
Google Scholar
Wuxiandianribao
Google Scholar
Xinwenbao
Google Scholar
Zhenbao
Google Scholar
Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei.Google Scholar
Beijing Municipal Archives, Beijing.Google Scholar
Hoover Institution Archives, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Second Historical Archives of China, Nanjing.Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives, Shanghai.Google Scholar
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, Georgia.Google Scholar