China Trademark Registration: How to Stop Squatters from Stealing Your Brand

A Canadian coat manufacturer came to us after China Customs detained a major shipment of its coats. The company had used its brand for years, but another company had registered the name as a trademark in China and asserted that registration against the shipment. The Canadian company wanted to sue. We looked at the possible challenges, the evidence, the cost, and what the company needed commercially. In the end, we negotiated a purchase of the China trademark. The price reached six figures.

Filing first would have been much cheaper.

China is principally a first-to-file trademark country. Prior use, bad faith, prior rights, and prior relationships can defeat some applications and registrations, and China's revised Trademark Law strengthens several of those protections when it takes effect January 1, 2027. The revised law also cuts the opposition period following preliminary publication from three months to two, giving brand owners less time to spot and challenge a conflicting application.

We discuss those changes in Five Practical Steps Foreign Brands Should Take to Prepare for China's New Trademark Law. They improve the remedies available after trouble starts. They do not change the economics. Filing the right trademark before somebody else does is almost always easier and cheaper than proving later why that person should lose it.

File Your China Trademark Before You Need It

Your U.S. trademark registration does not give you trademark rights in China. Neither does a Canadian, EU, Australian, or other foreign registration. Trademark rights are territorial. For the same or similar marks covering the same or similar goods or services, China generally gives priority to the earlier applicant. Chinese law provides grounds for challenging some improper filings, including specified prior rights, certain prior use, prior relationships that show knowledge of the mark, well-known marks, deception, improper means, and deliberate interference with protected prior rights.

Those rules matter when someone has already beaten you to the register. I would rather not build a trademark strategy around having to use them. If your brand has a meaningful China connection, search it and file before you become dependent on the answer. This applies well beyond companies selling to Chinese consumers. It includes businesses that manufacture or source in China, license their brands or technology there, exhibit at Chinese trade shows, work with Chinese distributors, or expect China to become important later.

You Can Have a China Trademark Problem Without Selling in China

Companies regularly tell us they do not need a China trademark because they have no China sales. For a manufacturer, that can miss the risk entirely. Your name or logo may appear on products, labels, packaging, manuals, shipping documents, molds, or tooling in China. If somebody else owns the relevant trademark, that registration can interfere with production or exports. Our manufacturing-specific article, Manufacturing in China? Register Your Trademark Before Someone Else Does, addresses that problem in more detail.

Sourcing creates similar exposure because your brand becomes visible to factories, trading companies, sourcing agents, packaging companies, and others in the supply chain. Licensing raises an even simpler question: who owns the China trademark you plan to license? Trade shows, Kickstarter campaigns, Amazon listings, social media, foreign trademark filings, product launches, and press coverage can also put a previously obscure brand in front of people looking for marks worth registering. Most foreign brands will never attract a squatter. That is not much comfort if your brand is the exception and your factory, distribution plan, or China launch depends on getting it back.

How China Trademark Squatting Happens

A squatter can be a complete stranger who spots a foreign brand and hopes to sell the registration later. The harder cases often involve someone who already knows the business: a manufacturer, distributor, sourcing agent, former employee, licensee, customer, or other commercial contact. That prior relationship can become valuable evidence because it helps show what the applicant knew and when. It does not make the resulting opposition or invalidation proceeding free or quick.

We have also dealt with companies that gave their trademark information to purported filing services and soon discovered that the same mark had been filed under someone else's name. In some matters, the ownership records and timing suggested a connection between the new applicant and the people who had received the filing instructions. The foreign company was then invited to buy the trademark. Know who is receiving your information before you send it, and do not let your manufacturer, sourcing agent, distributor, employee, or China subsidiary become the trademark owner merely because that makes the filing convenient. The owner should be the company that actually owns the brand. We have seen trademarks sitting in the wrong entity complicate enforcement and corporate transactions years after the original filing.

China's 2026 Trademark Law Makes Monitoring More Important

China adopted its revised Trademark Law on June 26, 2026. It takes effect January 1, 2027. The China National Intellectual Property Administration, or CNIPA, has also published an English-language overview of the changes. The new law strengthens the treatment of abusive applications. Article 19 addresses applications filed without a genuine purpose of use when they clearly exceed normal production or business needs and applications obtained through deception or other improper means. Article 24 protects specified prior rights and addresses deliberate preemptive filings involving marks another party has already used and established to the required degree. Article 54 authorizes administrative warnings and fines of up to RMB 100,000 for specified malicious applications that cause adverse effects.

For most established brands, the more immediate operational change is the opposition deadline. Article 36 reduces the period following preliminary publication to two months. For an important China mark, we recommend monitoring. A watch service gives you a chance to find a conflicting application while opposition remains available instead of discovering it after registration, when the procedural choices are narrower and the problem generally costs more to solve.

Article 49 makes another useful change. Current law imposes a one-year barrier in several situations after an earlier mark disappears from the register. The revised text narrows that rule to voluntary cancellation by the registrant and does not repeat it for invalidation, revocation, or expiration. That should make it easier in many cases to move from successfully clearing a blocking mark to obtaining your own registration, though implementing and transitional rules will still matter. China is giving legitimate brand owners better tools. Use them when necessary.

Filing First Is Not Enough: File the Right Trademark

A company that makes protective work gloves came to us after China Customs stopped one of its shipments. The company had registered its trademark in China years earlier, so at first glance it appeared to have done exactly what we recommend.The problem was the registration. Its lawyer had filed the trademark in Class 25, which covers gloves worn as clothing. The client's protective work gloves belonged in Class 9. While our client's registration covered goods it did not sell, a direct competitor registered the same mark for the relevant goods and used that registration against our client's shipment. The lawyer had been asked to register the trademark for gloves and did so. Nobody stopped to ask what kind of gloves. We discuss that matter and other filing problems in China Trademark Registration: Why U.S. Companies Need More Than a Filing Agent.

China uses the international Nice Classification system, but it subdivides many classes into narrower subclasses. The broad class number therefore does not tell you enough. A trademark registration can look perfectly respectable on a certificate and still leave the products that generate your revenue exposed. There is an opposite mistake as well: buying applications you do not need. Most companies do not need a wall of defensive registrations across every conceivable class. They need the right marks covering the products and realistic expansion areas that matter to the business.

Word Mark, Logo, and Chinese Name

A word mark and a logo are separate trademarks. If you want independent protection for both, they generally require separate applications and separate fees. A combined word-and-logo application can work when the combination is how the mark will consistently be used. Separate filings give you more flexibility when the name itself has value or the logo is likely to change. Word marks also tend to age better than logos because marketing departments redesign logos far more often than companies rename brands.

A Chinese-language name deserves separate thought. Registering the English mark does not automatically protect a distinct Chinese-character version. If you sell to Chinese consumers, choosing and registering an official Chinese name is often wise because customers, distributors, media, and online sellers will otherwise create one themselves. A company manufacturing solely for export has less reason to file every possible Chinese version, though that changes if a Chinese name begins to be used commercially.

Direct China Filing or Madrid?

The Madrid Protocol can be an efficient way to seek trademark protection across many countries. For China, we generally prefer a direct national filing because it gives us more control over the goods descriptions and China's subclass system. A Madrid designation must pass through a specification created for an international filing. That specification does not always map cleanly onto the coverage a company needs in China. Direct filing lets counsel structure the application for China from the outset.

Madrid can still be the right answer for a broad international portfolio. It should be a conscious portfolio decision rather than the automatic choice because China appears on a list of countries. We discuss the tradeoffs in The Madrid System for Trademarks: Powerful, But Not Always the Right Tool.

An NNN Agreement Does Not Replace a China Trademark

Companies preparing to manufacture in China often focus first on a Non-Disclosure, Non-Use, Non-Circumvention Agreement. When they are about to disclose confidential designs, specifications, pricing, or customer information, that can be exactly the right contract. It protects against a different risk.

An NNN Agreement binds the companies that signed it. It cannot stop an unrelated company from registering your trademark. A China trademark creates statutory rights in the mark for the goods and services covered by the registration. If the concern is your factory using confidential designs or going around you to customers, deal with that in the contract. If the concern is ownership of the brand name in China, file the trademark. Many manufacturing projects need both protections, and Do I Need a China NNN Agreement or a China Manufacturing Agreement? Usually Both explains where the contracts fit. An NNN Agreement can prohibit a manufacturer from registering your mark, but it binds only the companies that sign it and does not reserve the mark at CNIPA. That is why branded manufacturing projects generally need both the contract and the trademark filing.

China Customs Can Make the Trademark Problem Very Real

China Customs can enforce China trademark rights at the border, and trademark owners can record their registrations with Customs to make that enforcement easier. That is useful when you own the mark and want Customs watching for infringing goods. The Canadian coat and protective-glove matters show the other side: a registration in somebody else's hands can become leverage against your own shipment. Whether Customs will detain any particular shipment depends on the mark, the goods, how the mark is being used, the customs recordal, and the facts. Companies manufacturing branded products in China should deal with that question before a container is sitting at the border. Once you secure your China trademark, consider whether China Customs IP recordation makes sense for your business.

Bad-Faith Challenges Can Work

We represented a German company that discovered an unrelated Chinese company had filed its trademark first. Our client had already been manufacturing in China, which gave us useful evidence for challenging the earlier application. We opposed the Chinese company's application and filed for our client's mark. CNIPA examined our client's application while the opposition remained pending and rejected it because the earlier application was still in the way. We filed again, encountered the same problem, and appealed. Eventually, we won the opposition. With the earlier obstacle gone, our client's appeal succeeded and the company could move toward registration. The full account is in Harris Sliwoski Wins China Trademark Appeal.

The case is worth remembering for both halves of the result. China law gave our client a remedy and the remedy worked. Getting there required an opposition, additional applications, a refusal, an appeal, evidence, legal fees, and time. That is why I have little enthusiasm when a company tells me, "If somebody files first, we'll fight them later."

Frequently Asked Questions About China Trademark Registration

Does my U.S. trademark protect me in China?

No. A U.S. registration creates U.S. rights. It does not give you China trademark rights. Foreign registrations and use can become relevant evidence in particular disputes, but they do not replace a China filing.

Do I need a China trademark if I do not sell in China?

Often yes if your brand appears on products manufactured or sourced there. Registration can also matter if you license the brand, exhibit at Chinese trade shows, work through Chinese distributors, or expect to enter China later. For a manufacturing-only business, the filing strategy can usually be narrower than for a company selling throughout China. Protect the marks tied to the actual manufacturing and export risk.

Should I let my Chinese factory or sourcing agent register the trademark?

No, unless there is a deliberate and compelling reason for that entity to own your brand. Use a trademark agent to handle the filing, but keep ownership in the company that owns the brand. Putting the registration in a factory, distributor, sourcing agent, employee, or local subsidiary can create avoidable problems when relationships or ownership structures change.

Do I need separate applications for my name and logo?

If you want each protected independently, yes. A word mark and logo are separate marks. For most important brands, I prefer securing the word mark first because it survives logo redesigns and protects the name without tying it to a particular graphic presentation.

Should I file directly in China or use Madrid?

For a China-focused application, we generally prefer direct filing because it gives us more control over classes, subclasses, and goods descriptions. Madrid can make sense for a company filing the same mark across a large international portfolio. The question is which route produces the right China coverage, not which filing mechanism appears simpler.

What happens if I stop using my China trademark?

A China trademark registration lasts ten years and can be renewed, but a mark that has gone unused for three consecutive years without valid reason is vulnerable to a third-party non-use cancellation. Beginning January 1, 2027, CNIPA will also have express authority to initiate cancellation where a registered trademark has become generic or has gone unused for three consecutive years without justification. The revised law expressly recognizes use through the Internet and other information networks as trademark use when that use performs the required source-identifying function.

Keep evidence as you go. Contracts, invoices, packaging, advertising, online sales records, shipping documents, customs records, and evidence of authorized use are far easier to preserve now than reconstruct after a cancellation notice arrives. China Trademarks: When (and How) to Prove Use of a Mark in Commerce explains what to retain and why.

How much does it cost, and how long does China trademark registration take?

As of September 2026, Harris Sliwoski charges $2,000 per mark, per class for a standard China trademark application. That includes determining the appropriate class and subclasses, conducting the China trademark search, preparing and filing the application, and the government filing fees and costs. We generally can get a straightforward application filed within seven days. Registration itself takes much longer, commonly around a year when there are no significant complications. Oppositions, refusals, prior conflicting marks, or other issues extend the process.

A word mark and separately protected logo count as two marks, and additional classes mean additional applications. We would rather identify the filings the business actually needs than sell applications simply because they can be filed. Compare the filing cost with the six-figure purchase in the Canadian coat matter, two shipments stopped at China Customs, or the proceedings required for our German client. That is the economic argument for filing early.

Someone Else Filed Your China Trademark: What to Do

Do not start with a demand letter. Start with the register and the evidence.

1. Confirm the applicant, mark, classes, subclasses, and status. Identify the applicant accurately, including its registered Chinese name when relevant. Determine exactly what was filed, what goods or services it covers, the filing date, and whether the application is pending, published, or already registered.
2. Find out whether opposition is still available. A pending application gives you procedural options that disappear after registration. Beginning January 1, 2027, the opposition period following preliminary publication is only two months.
3. Investigate the applicant's relationship to your business. Check manufacturers, distributors, sourcing agents, employees, licensees, customers, competitors, filing services, and other contacts. Preserve emails, contracts, purchase orders, trade-show records, marketing materials, screenshots, shipping records, and prior trademark filings that show what the applicant knew and when.
4. Compare the legal remedies with the commercial alternatives. Depending on the facts, the options include opposition, invalidation, non-use cancellation, negotiating a transfer, coexistence, or rebranding. Sometimes fighting is the right answer. Sometimes buying the mark costs less than winning the fight. Make that decision after you know the strength of the claim, the importance of the brand, and what delay is costing the business.
5. Handle manufacturing and Customs exposure separately. Find out whether the conflicting registration has been recorded with China Customs and whether current production or exports are at risk. Your factory and logistics providers may need instructions long before the trademark ownership dispute is resolved.

If your mark is still available, file it correctly before manufacturing, sourcing, licensing, publicity, or market entry gives someone else a reason to notice it.

If someone has already filed, investigate first and choose the remedy that makes commercial as well as legal sense. China's revised Trademark Law gives brand owners better ways to fight abusive registrations. Filing before you need those remedies remains the better deal.