At the 2014 China International Trade Fair for Apparel Fabrics and Accessories last week, some 20 companies from Xiqiao township displayed not only their own trademarks and brands, but also the collective mark "Xiqiao Fabric".

The township in Foshan city, Guangdong province has a fabric industry dating back some 1,000 years, according to local written records, and it was a regional fabric hub even in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Today it is one of China's three largest textile wholesales centers.

Local companies have long used the term "Xiqiao Fabric" when taking part in exhibitions and competitions worldwide, but it was not until early this month that the collective mark was approved by the national trademark administration.

For years, fabric companies in Xiqiao focused on middle and low-priced products with sales highly dependent on clients coming to them. Some local companies even believed that it was unnecessary to register trademarks because fabric is "an intermediate product".

But the market for inexpensive products is shrinking, so local companies had to move further up-market, where they realized trademarks are essential.

"Few companies had the word Xiqiao in their trademarks before, which weakened the brand advantage of the region," an official from the local textile industry association told Nanfang Daily.

"The brand, cultivated by generations of locals, nearly went into the hands of outsiders."

In April 2005, local authority found a Xiqiao trademark application in the database of the national trademark administration filed by someone outside the township. The trademark attempt covered multiple products including fabrics and clothes.

With the application in the review period, they immediately filed an objection and succeeded in blocking the trademark.

But the authority still met challenges. Their first try for a trademark in 2006 failed because the collective mark had already been registered for textiles by yet another applicant.

They tried again in 2012. With the help of preferential policies in Foshan city, progress was smoother this time. In late 2013, the township government won a lawsuit against the trademark squatter at a trial heard in Beijing.

Today there are more than 840 companies in the textile business in Xiqiao including some 150 large-scale producers. Together they have more than 1,000 trademarks and around 60,000 employees. They make about 2.6 billion meters of cloth each year.

But the number of companies was about 1,300 in 2003.

Guan Haiquan, deputy mayor of the township, said the decrease over the past decade was the result of economic natural selection.

"Although smaller in number, the remaining companies are more competitive than before," he said.

The local fabric industry association said it will promote a brand strategy by encouraging local companies to apply for national and provincially famous trademarks. It will also provide tailor-made plans for each company to protect its trademarks.

The local government is now making an effort to restructure the local fabric industry by extending the industry chain to finished clothes and collaborating with clothing makers

"The label on a piece of clothing often has the name and address of the producer, but the fabric maker is not mentioned, even though it provides the main material," said the deputy mayor. "So, the brand of Xiqiao depends on end products."

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Fabrics made in Xiqiao township attract buyers at a trade fair. Yin Hong / for China Daily