On January 13, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) circulated a draft amendment to the PRC Trademark Law for public comment (“TML Draft Amendment”). The TML Draft Amendment is the product of deliberations that officially commenced in 2018. This deliberation process resulted in the 2019 stop-gap revisions to the Trademark Law that were primarily focused on addressing the issue of trademark hoarding. The current TML Draft Amendment was prepared by a CNIPA working group established in 2022 to consolidate prior survey and research efforts and prepare a first draft of proposed revisions. This first draft is a comprehensive and ambitious effort to update the law to address both new and longstanding issues, including – among many others – the issue of bad faith filings and issues around trademark use. Many industry groups and professional organizations (including INTA and the USCBC) will be submitting comments on behalf of their members before the February 27 deadline for public comment.Continue Reading CNIPA Issues Significant Draft Amendment to the PRC Trademark Law
CNIPA Goes Paperless—Ceases Issuing Paper Trademark Registration Certificates as of January 1, 2022
On October 12, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that from January 1, 2022, the CNIPA will issue only electronic copies of trademark registration certificates regardless of whether applications were filed as standard paper filings or as e-filings. This procedural change follows a number of formatting changes to the registration certificate template initiated in 2018, including the addition of a QR code on each registration certificate for publication/verification purposes.
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CNIPA’s New Formalities Requirements for Petitioning for Protection of Well-Known Marks: Letter of Good Faith of Applicants and Agents
On August 6, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that effective September 1, 2021, an applicant and its trademark agency will be required to submit a letter of good faith in support of any opposition, opposition appeal, and invalidation submission that includes a claim for well-known protection under Article 13 of the PRC Trademark Law, which provides generally broad (and cross-class) protection for marks that are “well-known.”
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China’s National Legislature Advances Changes to Trademark Law
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress announced amendments to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China on April 23, 2019.
The new amendments address three primary issue areas:
- the filing of trademark applications in bad faith without an intent to use;
- the sanctioning of trademark agencies that assist with the filing
China Promulgates Electronic Commerce Law
China promulgated an electronic commerce law on August 31, 2018, effective, January 1, 2019. Of interest to intellectual property rights (IPR) holders, the law makes e-commerce platform operators potentially jointly and severally liable with IP infringers and enables the relevant administrative department (e.g., the China National Intellectual Property Agency (CNIPA)) to fine platform operators up to 2 million RMB (~$291,000) for failure to protect IPR. The law also formalizes a mechanism for IPR disputes on e-commerce platforms.
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