Bernie Hung is the founder and CEO of BlueBox Rocket, an innovative vision-to- launch service that helps pioneering entrepreneurs and CEOs transform their ideas into reality and scale up their businesses for massive expansion. This bespoke service combines Hung’s certified coaching, interdisciplinary business mentorship and strategic no-fuss legal expertise to help her clients skyrocket to success.
One of Hung’s many specialties is pro- tecting and commercializing intellectual property (IP) within the luxury fashion and lifestyle space. Hung is no stranger to working with fashion’s elite, touting world-renowned luxury brands such as LVMH, Moncler, MCM, Marine Serre and more as clients. Another heavy-hitting client on her already impressive roster is global powerhouse Kering, who manages the development of a series of esteemed fashion houses such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Venata, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni and Boucheron, among others. She’s internationally known for battling it out with trademark pirates and copycats in court; after a series of victories in trademark cases for Gucci in the China courts, she helped her team win the prestigious “World Trademark Review – Best IP Team in Asia” industry award.
Hung, a Hong Kong, China native and mother of two, read law in King’s College London, the city where she currently resides. When it comes to her luxury fashion clientele, she finds that many seek to tap into the exciting China and Asia Pacific markets, both online and offline, but often don’t have experience or have heard too many horror stories. She diligently works to help them navigate the maze by putting legal structures in place, protecting intellectual property, establishing a team and operation, dealing with local business partners and more. Hung says that she enjoys working with brands and founders who are visionary, brave, authentic, open-minded and who do not compromise on quality, ethics and integrity in any circumstance. Hung embodies those qualities herself, which is how she earned the nickname, “The Rebel Lawyer.”
“A rebel is someone who pushes through to true innovation and authentic creativity. ‘Rebel lawyers’ are excellent, all-rounded, unconventional, fun-to-work-with lawyers with extreme professionalism, utmost integrity and immense passion in service. I am the Rebel Lawyer,” said Hung.
“I would like to challenge my colleagues in the legal profession to resist and refuse allegiance to the established, perceived stereotypes and contentions that lawyers are old-fashioned, arrogant, aggressive, rigid, boring, slow and charge exorbitant fees; that lawyers are rubber-stampers, deal-blocking cost centers or ‘just’ service providers, replaceable from one minute to the next,” Hung said. “Because the reality is that clients need us to be way more than just being an excellent lawyer — that’s a given. What they need is for us to be maverick lawyers who speak human language.”
Protecting intellectual property is often viewed as an impossible feat, especially in the fashion industry. When asked if protecting IP in luxury fashion is feasible, Hung said, “Certainly! Depending on the subject matter and the country in question, there are various ways to protect your iconic brands, trademarks, logos, prints, copyrighted works, proprietary and confidential information, technologies, product designs, features, functionalities and technological inventions and many more. The key is to know the importance of IP protection, and put in place concrete strategies, action plans and budgets to implement it. IP rights are your company’s most important and valuable assets for decades and centuries to come.”
Hung also emphasized that “it is important to protect your IP in every industry. [Doing so] secures your underlying business model to enable you to survive and thrive. In the luxury fashion space, it is vital to protect very early on the brand and all iconic logos or designs in all the major markets that you intend to be present.
“The brand is very often the name of the designer or the founder, so it can get very personal and emotional if your own name is pirated by robbers out there who then hold you to ransom. If you are late in protecting your own IP in some countries, this can mean you are precluded from selling or engaging in other business activities in
those markets, which translates to a phenomenal loss of potential revenues and business opportunities.
“If you have developed proprietary technologies or knowhow, for example, it is critical to thoroughly investigate on Day 1 whether and how you can protect them as patents or trade secrets, and of course to safeguard your position during business negotiations and in all contracts.”
So what are the first steps brands should take as they embark upon the Chinese market? Hung suggests:
Know your geography and customers. China is a gigantic country. Luxury brands have long gone beyond Tiers 1 and 2 cities, and many have nurtured loyal clientele in Tiers 3 and 4 cities as well. Before bringing your brand to China, research to find out where your target customers are and how they shop.
It’s all about relationships. In many Asian cultures, doing business is all about relationships and “face.” Face can be understood as a person’s or an organization’s social standing in the community. In China, for example, losing face means more than just looking bad — it may mean losing your ability to do business. So I’d suggest establishing some trustworthy and resourceful local relationships early on, and ensure you know and respect their culture.
Be prepared to localize. Anticipate adapting your business strategies, corporate policies, leadership style, branding and positioning, product and packaging, sales and marketing and communication to local needs to some extent.
Understand the risks and challenges of doing business. Again, do thorough research. Risks and challenges of doing bus ness in China — and any new market for that matter — include the government’s role in business, market entry barriers, intellectual property theft, data protection and cybersecurity issues, talent acquisition, management and upskilling, anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements and due diligence on local business partners.
Realize the legal and compliance complexities. China is unique in many ways. It can be much more time-consuming for young foreign brands to find out about and to actually comply with local legal and compliance requirements. Key areas to pay attention to include corporate governance, company formation, directors’ liability, business and industry standards and regulations, opening bank accounts, laws and regulations in relation to dividends repatriation, employment, forex, tax, transfer pricing and many more areas. Seek professional advice and assistance to understand these areas.
Build a strong IP and legal foundation. It is astonishing how often intellectual property rights and the legal foundation on which a business is built is left out entirely when considering business expansion, or left until the very last minute. When exploring expansion to China, I would suggest performing a comprehensive audit on your worldwide registered and unregistered IP rights, all corporate structures and records, regulatory compliance, as well as employment contracts, other material agreements and disputes relevant or potentially relevant to China. Often it takes time to identify gaps in IP ownership and to close them, exit or renegotiate contracts, and resolve bad business relationships and disputes, so start early.
When asked how she helps clients navigate the ever-changing regulations when entering the Chinese market, Hung said: “Newsletters from your own government, Chamber of Commerce, industry and trade associations, law firms and so on definitely can help you keep appraised on trade and legal developments.
“When I work with my clients, I help them understand how the laws and regulations are interpreted and applied in reality, how they may impact my clients’ businesses in the short to long terms, how to pivot and budget accordingly in order to be legally compliant and mitigate risks and whether they may be able to create or take advantage of new opportunities enabled by a change of regulations.”
How about brands that are already in the Chinese market, but are bound by their third-party entities? “This depends on how they are ‘bound’. Hopefully there are ways to exit the loveless ‘marriage’ contractually, legally or via negotiation,” said Hung. “But I can’t stress enough the importance of getting all the facts right, securing all relevant evidence, researching, strategizing and tactically working on a couple of viable alternatives in parallel before you strike.”
Through BlueBox Rocket, Hung helps her clients from vision to launch through her formula: Belief + Action + Honesty + Fun = Success.
“First and foremost is belief,” said Hung. “Related to that is to help clients get their ‘why’ glaringly clear. Then I help clients have clarity on their ‘what.’ Next, I get clients thinking who should be in their team. Last but not the least, I highly encourage founders to be honest. And we do all of this while having fun in the journey, that’s the whole point of being your own boss!”
To learn more about Bernie Hung and BlueBox Rocket, including how to start your own vision-to-launch journey, visit blueboxrocket.co.uk/home.