Foreign companies often face challenges of attacking the
malicious trademark registrations by third parties when entering
the China market. However, when a malicious trademark consists of a
logo and a word component, a highly effective strategy is to rely
on the client's prior copyright to attack the malicious
trademark in opposition and invalidation actions. The copyright
claim applies regardless of the goods or services covered by the
malicious trademark.
Legal Basis of Copyright Claim
Article 32 of the China Trademark Law stipulates that "No
applications for trademark registration may infringe upon the
existing prior rights of others, and bad faith registration by
illicit means of a trademark with a certain reputation already used
by another party shall be prohibited." "Existing prior
rights of others" here refer to the company's trade name
right, design right, copyright, and individual's name right,
etc.
