Q&A: Pharmaceutical Trademark Enforcement In China

Anti-counterfeiting and enforcement

Types of proceedings

What types of legal or administrative proceedings are available to enforce against infringing products?

Generally, for small enterprises that may only have slight influence, it will be cost efficient to send a cease and desist (C&D) letter before going into any legal proceedings. The C&D letter should clarify the right owner's intellectual property (IP) rights; the infringer's activities; and request the infringer to stop the infringing activities immediately. It is suggested that this letter be sent after the notarisations are done for the purchase process and the infringing websites, since, given the relatively weak legal force of a C&D letter in China, the suspected infringer may choose to ignore the C&D letter and continue their infringement more covertly, which will make evidence collection difficult in the future. The C&D letter should be prepared carefully to avoid any unnecessary groundless