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

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.
Continue Reading CNIPA Goes Paperless—Ceases Issuing Paper Trademark Registration Certificates as of January 1, 2022

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.”
Continue Reading CNIPA’s New Formalities Requirements for Petitioning for Protection of Well-Known Marks: Letter of Good Faith of Applicants and Agents