Draft Revision to China’s Trademark Regulation

The China Nationwide Mental Property Administration (CNIPA) has published a draft revision to China’s Trademark Regulation and known as for feedback from the general public. On this put up and others that may observe, we’ll take a look at probably the most important proposed revisions and think about how they may impression international companies. At this time we start by taking a look at some proposed adjustments concerning the definition of what constitutes a trademark and absolutely the grounds for the refusal of a trademark software.

In the intervening time, China’s Trademark Regulation defines logos as “any indicators, together with phrases, graphs, letters, numbers, three-dimensional symbols, coloration mixtures, sound or any mixture thereof, which can be able to distinguishing the products of a pure individual, authorized individual or different group from these of others could also be utilized for registration as logos.” The draft revision of the legislation would see the addition of the time period “different parts” (其他要素) to the listing above, paving the way in which for the registration of different kinds of indicators, equivalent to scents and position marks.

Article 10 of the present legislation prohibits the registration of marks “detrimental to socialist ethics or customs, or having different unwholesome influences”. The draft revision would see language added to the related clause, to incorporate marks which can be dangerous to the “wonderful Chinese language conventional tradition” (中华优秀传统文化). Such a prohibition may very well be an issue for manufacturers that incorporate sure Chinese language cultural icons into their logos, even when there isn’t a intention to offend.

Lastly, the present Article 11 prohibits registering the “generic title, picture, or mannequin quantity” of a product. The draft revision would moreover prohibit registering the “technical time period” (技术术语的) of a product, offering additional readability.

In future posts, we’ll be taking a look at different doable adjustments below the draft revision, together with some that might see more durable measures in opposition to bad-faith registrations and protections for well-known logos.