How China can safeguard visual heritage against Western luxury brand exploitation

In early July, a Suzhou court ordered the Chinese tea chain Molly Tea to pay Louis Vuitton 10.3 million yuan (US$1.5 million) after ruling that its four-petal floral pattern infringed on the French luxury house’s registered trademarks.
Many online users, angered by the eastern Chinese court’s ruling, shared images of similar motifs found in Tang dynasty (618–907) textiles, musical instruments, and Suzhou garden architecture, arguing that these precede Louis Vuitton’s founding in 1854 by...