Trademark registration in China

A trademark is a commercial name of your product, its logo, a figure of the mascot of your company – any recognizable information associated with your company or product.

Do not confuse the trademark (for example, QQ) and the company name (respectively – 腾讯科技（深圳）有限公司).

So you’ve decided that your product is worth protecting with a trademark. It is extremely simple and cheap, the only thing is that its registration takes at best six months, and at worst it may drag on for a year and a half.

First of all (and this is the most difficult stage) you will need to choose a name (or a picture, a shape, etc.). And here, should you have considered yourself a creative person, you will radically change your opinion of yourself. Over and over again you will check for the presence of similar TMs – including most loony combinations, most unexpected shapes, and over and over again you will see that such TM has already been registered. But if you survive this ordeal, the rest can be done with your hands behind your back.

First of all, you need to decide which category (大类) and subcategory (小项) your product belongs to. The international TM classifier will help you with this. For example, type 05 is medical supplies and subtype 0504 is veterinary drugs. Type 42 is scientific and technical works, while subtype 4218 is uniform design services. And so on. When registering a trademark, you can select up to 10 subtypes.

Then you should go to any major trademarks portal – for example, the Alibaba’s one. And meticulously check all the names that come to your mind. The coincidence of two or more characters is almost 100% rejection, the use of characters similar to the degree of confusion is rejection. So on and so forth.

Having picked up a dozen or so relatively suitable names, you can send them to an intermediary through which you will register it. We have cooperated with 北京国信畅达-centre for copyright, but you are absolutely free to choose another one.

In any case, you will have to contact the intermediaries, since the Copyright and Intellectual Property Administration of the PRC does not work directly with the applicants. The intermediary, through their internal system, will check if there are similar trademarks and send you something like this

Found 26 similar TMs, high risk of rejection of application. Ha ha ha, did you consider yourself creative?

You repeat it, iteration by iteration. Ages elapsed – and finally you’ve got something like this.

No similar trade marks were found. Time to open a champagne!

Tip: If you’ve found a perfect trademark, but it’s occupied, don’t be discouraged. First, check that company through 企查查 or any similar service – maybe that company has already ceased operations. Then you can apply for the invalidation of the trademark and demand it for yourself.

But even if no similar trademarks are found, this does not mean that your application will be approved. The intermediary will tell you a percentage number that represents the likelihood of successful approval of the application. Below 50% – no need to try at all. 70% is good odds, there is practically no higher chance. 80% – I have encountered it only once, this is very good. Above 80% – do not waste your powerful intellect and unprecedented creativity on such a mundane matter as registering a TM.

Basically, that’s it. All you need now is to photocopy your business license (营业执照) and put a seal on it + print out the agreement with the intermediary and a power of attorney for them to apply for a TM on behalf of your company and send it to them. And now wait. You will receive 初审公告 (advance notice) in 1-3 months, and the certificate in another 6-9 months. The gap is given so that other companies that believe that this TM infringes their copyrights can dispute your receipt of it.

Naturally, if you want to register a TM for a foreign company, everything is much more complicated and longer, and instead of one year it can take as long as three.

After that, you will receive the original paper certificate by mail. Everything is done and dusted.

Approximate rates from our intermediaries are shown below. Don’t overpay or get involved with those who don’t deserve your trust.

1) registration of a new trademark for a Chinese/Hong Kong/Macao company – 1,000 yuan (170 USD)

2) registration of a new trademark for a foreign company – 13,200 yuan (2,000 USD)

3) invalidation of someone else’s trademark – 3,500 yuan (500 USD)

4) reissue of paper certificate – 1,200 yuan (200 USD)