Change In Law About Malicious Registration And Trademark Misuse

A recent development in China has led to some alterations pertaining to malicious trademark registrations and infringement, trademark counterfeiting, etc.

Accordingly, these changes will come into force as of November 1, 2019.

In line with the new changes, "[a] bad faith application for trademark registration for a purpose other than use shall be rejected." pursuant to the Amendment in Article 4, Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law.

However, the new Amendment does not alter the fact that trademark holders in China are still not required to provide proof of use for trademark registrations. In that regard, in case the applicants are willing to file an application for the purpose other than use and are acting in bad faith while doing so, the application will be considered as malicious trademark application.