An End to Trademark Grabbing in China?

On August 30, 2013 the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the third amendment to the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, which will enter into force on May 1, 2014.

Does the new trademark law address the concerns of trademark holders as to the rampant instances of trademark grabbing by unauthorized Chinese parties?

1. Challenges under the current trademark law

The actual trademark law, and the related case law of Chinese civil courts as well as the practice of the relevant administrative bodies in charge of trademark protection in China have clearly failed in preventing and punishing a most common form of trademark infringement in China, namely that of the so called trademark grabbing together with the related fall out of trademark trolls actions against foreign investors in China. Following we will briefly address such legal issues and we will then analyze the new trademark law to see whether and how these issues have now