China is a “first-to-file” jurisdiction, meaning that it is necessary to register a trademark in order to obtain proprietary rights over it. Trademarks must be registered via the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China（CTMO）. China is also a member state to the Madrid Protocol. Thus, the extension of an international registration of a trademark via the Madrid System is possible for this country.

The applicant shall indicate on the application the class of goods and describe the goods with which the mark is used, based on the prescribed schedule of classes of goods, and shall file an application, meanwhile，the applicant can apply the same trademark for goods in different classes with an application.

In China registered trademarks are valid for a period of ten (10) years from the registration date. They can then be renewed for subsequent ten-year periods indefinitely.

Our Firm provides our clients with legal services of filing, prosecution, renewal, licensing, assignment and corporate name change (among others) of:

a) Trademarks
b) Slogans
c) Trade Names
d) Geographical Indication

We also provide our clients with an up to date, monitoring and reporting service on any identical or confusingly similar third party Trademark applications, in order to file oppositions against any possibly conflicting registrations.

Chinese Official Trademark Gazette is published weekly. Our TM watch service consists on weekly monitoring of said Official TM Gazette, in order to send a timely and immediate alert to our clients on any identical or confusingly similar third party Trademark applications.

The deadline to file an opposition in China is a three-month period, starting from the date of publication of the TM Official Gazette. Oppositions are decided in an approximate ten-month period, starting from their filing date.