In China new laws will be applied for infringement and illegal
or bad faith trademark application, effective as from November 1st,
2019. The aim is to reduce trademark "squatters" by
imposing greater sanctions and enabling the national office to
refuse such bad faith trademark filing.
On the one hand, the National Intellectual Property
Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNIPA) may
now reject bad faith applications without intent to use
during examination.
On the other hand, Trademark Agencies will also be held
responsible, as the new law requires them not to accept an
engagement if they know or should know of the bad faith of the
application. Moreover, agencies will be held liable for
administrative sanctions, such as warnings and fines for trademark
applications in bad faith and will be penalized by Courts for
instituting trademark litigation in bad faith.
