On January 23, 2023, the PRC National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) issued a draft Amendment to the PRC Trademark Law (the “Draft”) for public comments and opinions by February 27, 2023. This is the fifth-time amendment to the PRC Trademark Law since it first came into effect in 1982.

From the Draft, we see many substantial revisions, and below is the brief summary of these key changes.

Curbing bad faith filings

• Clarification of types of bad faith filings
• Administrative punishments
• Mandatory transfer of bad faith filings to the genuine trademark owners
• Authenticity and integrity of application documents

Tackling trademark warehousing and strengthening requirements on trademark use

China is currently a first-to-file jurisdiction. The first-to-file system means that anyone could register any marks (including others’ famous brands) in China without any intent to use them, which leads to a long history of trademark hoarding and squatting in China. The Draft has made changes in this regard:

• Requirements on trademark use
• Repeated filings prohibited

Procedural changes

• Shorten the publication period for opposition
• Revoking trademark gazette
• Removing opposition appeal procedures
• Suspension of proceedings

What’s Next

There are many other substantial changes in the Draft in addition to the above mentioned, including but not limited to the new articles on (i) collective marks and certification marks, (ii) broader protections of well-known marks, (iii) higher thresholds for establishing trademark agency firms, (iv) civil liabilities against malicious litigations, and etc. It is said that the CNIPA will submit a proposal for legislation to the upcoming annual session of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) in March, 2023. In any event, there will be several rounds of discussions and drafts for public comments before the final version gets passed by the NPC.