Trade mark law was an institution that governed how real nouns, invented words, signatures and logos were used to promote products. In environments where a high proportion of exchange was personal, and where the range of products was narrow, elaborate trade mark institutions were unnecessary. Long term, however, impersonal exchange between a myriad of producers and consumers was supported by such formal rules. Hong Kong gained trade mark law because of colonial structures of governance which sought to promote impersonal long distant trade. In early post-war, a period of rapid industrialisation, the infringement of trade marks in Hong Kong became chronic: this, it is argued, was a rational entrepreneurial response to market conditions. This perceived “problem” of piracy led to collective actions by economic organisations to enhance enforcement of the law. The colonial state also acted to reform the law and make new resources available to police it. Such processes are used to reveal how, and for whom, institutions were made in Hong Kong.