Guide to Apply for a trademark in China 1. General Information The Chinese Trademark Office accepts trademark applications for the registration of trademarks for goods, services, certification and collective trademarks. Any visual sign incl
With respect to the assignment of a trademark, it means that the holder of a trademark assigns the trademark to another party within the period of validity of the registered trademark according to the legal procedures. In generally, assignment of a trademark is the change of the owner of the registered trademark, namely, it is a way of obtaining the trademark right.
Borsam is a full service intellectual property law firm in China dealing with prosecution, litigation, transaction, and consultation services relating to Patents and Trademarks with experienced and specialized patent and trademark attorneys.
With respect to the trademark review of refusal, it means that trademark application (including application for trademark registration, opposition, assignment, renewal, cancelation and etc.) has been refused by the Trademark Office, where the applicant is dissatisfied with the decision of Trademark Office, he or it may file a request of review to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board within the legal time limit.
Once a trademark is approved and registered, the trademark registrant is entitled to the exclusive rights to use the trademark...
The Chinese Trademark Office accepts trademark applications for registration of trademarks for goods, service trademarks, certification trademarks and collective trademarks. Any visual sign including words, devices, letters, numerals, three-dimensional symbols, combinations of colors or any combination of the above elements may be applied for the registration of a trademark.
Before filing the trademark application, it is recommended to conduct a trademark search first to exclude the refusal risk before filing. How to conduct a trademark search? You may refer to my article Guide to search Chinese trademark on CNIPA.
Goods/services item is the core of a trademark application. It decides the protection of the trademark application. When you are filing a trademark application, it is compulsory to choose at least one class and goods/services item for the application. In a Chinese trademark application, it is allowed to have ten items in the initial application but requested to pay an extra fee from the eleventh.
As per Article 3 of Chinese Trademark Law, they’re four types of trademark applications in China, i.e. goods trademarks, services trademarks, collective trademarks and certification trademarks.
The Chinese Trademark Office accepts trademark applications for registration of trademarks for goods, service trademarks, certification trademarks and collective trademarks. Any visual sign including words, devices, letters, numerals, three-dimensional symbols, combinations of colors, or any combination of the above elements may be applied for the registration of a trademark.
As provided in Article 8 of the Trademark Law, in respect of any visual sign capable of distinguishing the goods or service of one natural person, legal entity or any other organization from that of others.
As provided in Article 4 of the Trademark Law, any natural person, legal entity or other organization intending to acquire the Exclusive Right to Use a Registered trademark for the goods produced...
As provided in Article 10 of the Trademark Law, the following signs shall not be used as trademarks...
As provided in Article 11, the following signs shall not be registered as trademarks...
According to the provisions of Chinese trademark law, if a trademark has not been used continuously for three years, anyone else could file a request to cancel this trademark. Then the trademark office would send a notification to ask the trademark holder to respond and amend in limited time frame. In that case, the defendant needs to provide evidence to respond and prove it.
Trademark opposition describes the situation when a party believes that the trademark, which the applicant is registering but has not yet been approved, violates the absolute prohibitive provisions under the Trademark Law or infringes on their legal rights acquired earlier.
This article covers how to conduct a trademark search on the official website of the Trademark Office of China. The applicant can use this system to conduct a preliminary search before starting the filing process. For a more detailed search method please refer to our company website.
A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression identifying products or services of a particular source from those of others. Thetrademark owner can be an individual, business organization, or any legal entity. A recognisable trademark brings many benefits to the owner when used in commerce.
This article introduces the procedure of licensing a trademark in China. The holder of a trademark has an exclusive right to use that trademark after being approved and registered. The License of a trademark refers to the trademark right holder authorizing another person to use the trademark through legal procedures, commonly through a license contract.
As in most countries whose IP law is modeled around WIPO and the international covenants, the trademark registration process in China is preceded with both a formal and substantive examination. The formal requirements are generally easily met, however the substantive requirements tend to be more comprehensive and the failure to meet the standards often brings a provisional refusal or partial refusal.
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A trademark opposition is to challenge the right of a particular trademark by filing a request to the trademark office. This procedure almost exists in all jurisdictions which have a trademark system. The subtle difference in each jurisdiction is to oppose before or after the formal examination by the trademark office.
A trademark invalidation is the last chance to challenge the right of a particular trademark. According to the Chinese trademark law Article 44, any registered trademark which is against the Trademark Law Article 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 30, 31, 32 or is acquired in bad faith, could be invalid thought the invalidation request.
Although it is not compulsory to use a trademark in China after getting the trademark registration, it is still possible to remove the trademark by requesting to submit use evidence to release space for subsequent applications. It is relatively easy to file a cancellation request based on non-use for continuous three years in China because the challenger doesn’t even need to do an investigation and file anything to support his claim.
Before you start to identify the description for your trademark application, I suggest you read my article “What are goods/services items” to have a picture of what they are and what is the difference for the Chinese classification. It decides the protection of the trademark application.
China adopts the first-to-file principle for trademark applications, and anyone can get registration of a trademark without use evidence when applying, which means he may have the trademark rights earlier than the real user of the trademark. Hence, if China is a target market in your business plan, don’t hesitate to register. Millions of applications are born there every year, so that more and more prior application would be a barrier to your application.
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