Accelerated Trademark Examination Speed in China
It used to take about a year for the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) to conduct an official examination of a new trademark application. The procedure has accelerated, and the timeframe for examination has changed considerably.
Official examination of trademark applications now typically takes 3-5 months, with some cases taking as little as two months. This implies that applicants should expect to hear about the status of their applications within 2-5 months. Despite the fact that China has a substantially greater quantity of applications, this is faster than most other countries where substantive examination of trademark applications is conducted.
Along with this advancement, the examination of other trademark proceedings and processes has accelerated, while the advancement is significantly smaller than that of trademark applications.
This accelerated examination speed would undoubtedly benefit brand owners. However, it also presents different challenges and obstacles. The obvious drawback is that applicants now have less time to take action to clear third-party prior trademarks that may affect their applications. New applications are frequently rejected and become invalid while attempts to eliminate potential barriers (such as resistance, non-use cancellation, and invalidation) continue.
Additional measures, which involve additional costs, are frequently required to extend the validity of new applications, such as: Including a formal request with the new trademark application informing the CNIPA that there are ongoing proceedings against potentially third-party infringing trademarks and requesting that the examination of the new application be delayed until the relevant proceedings are finished, Include fraudulent goods or services description to trigger a notice of a modification, When filing a trade mark application, inform a controlled third party to submit a competing application on the same day to start further formal processes, after the prior application expires, keep submitting new applications.
The third measures currently seem to be the most effective way to address the timing problems that might occasionally arise from the examination’s accelerated speed. It appears, nevertheless, that the CNIPA will shortly take steps to restrict or even ban brand owners from using this delay strategy. It is hoped that the CNIPA would simultaneously acknowledge the timeliness concerns that applicants occasionally encounter and adopt additional steps to help address the current challenges so that brand owners can protect their rights through normal procedures.
***Other Articles***
– You could see How To Register Trademark in China here.
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Trademark in China.
– You could visit here to check Required documents of filing trademark in China.
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