Trademark Protection and International Firms

We examine how trademark protection—a prevalent but underexplored intellectual property right—affects international firms and market outcomes in an emerging economy. Exploiting the unexpected introduction of China’s 1923 Trademark Law and digitized microdata from Shanghai linking firms, workers, intermediaries, trade, and prices, we show that stronger protection reduced information frictions: private anti-counterfeiting efforts fell, authentic foreign firms expanded, and imitation-prone firms contracted. By lowering brand-dilution risk, the reform deepened foreign integration with Chinese intermediaries. Increased entry and heterogeneous price responses indicate improved market efficiency rather than increased market power, distinguishing trademarks from patents and copyrights.