Trademark squatting in China: why first-to-file catches out foreign brands

China gives a trademark to whoever files first, and a registration elsewhere gives you nothing there. Foreign brands lose their names to partners, distributors and professional filers who apply before them. An online application costs RMB 270 per class in official fees; recovering a mark that someone else registered takes months to years, with no guarantee.

There is no “we have used this name for twenty years” argument in China. The register asks who filed first and answers it: where two applicants file the same or a similar mark for the same or similar goods, the earlier application goes forward, and use decides only a same-day tie (Trademark Law, Article 31).^⁠[1] The rule, and the three provisions that soften it at the edges, are set out in what first to file means for trademarks in China. This piece is about what happens to brands in practice, and what it costs to avoid it.

How do foreign brands lose their name in China?

Usually to someone they were talking to, before they had filed. Four patterns cover most cases.

• A business partner registers it. You share a logo and plans with a prospective partner, and the partner, or someone connected to it, files. The law gives you a direct objection where an agent or representative registers your mark without authority, and a narrower one against a contract or business counterparty who knew of a mark you were already using (Article 15).^⁠[1] Both turn on proof: the relationship, and for the second, your earlier use.
• The distributor registers it. Often offered as help: “we will handle the China registration for you.” Filed in the distributor’s name, it becomes a bargaining chip at every renewal of the distribution agreement.
• A professional filer finds you. Speculative filers watch crowdfunding sites, trade fairs, marketplace bestseller lists and foreign registers, and file on anything with momentum. The business model is selling it back to you.
• You announced before you filed. A press release, a stand at an exhibition or a product post that travels is a filing signal to anyone watching.

A Chinese registration held by someone else is not only a problem for selling into China. Customs protection covers trademark rights relating to goods imported or exported (Regulations on Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Article 2),^⁠[2] so a mark recorded with Chinese customs by its registrant can reach goods leaving China as well. A brand that manufactures in China and never sells there can be caught this way.

Is China doing anything about trademark squatting?

Yes, and the revised Trademark Law in force from 1 January 2027 goes further than the current one. Today, a bad-faith application not intended for use is refused (Article 4).^⁠[1] From 2027 an application not intended for use that clearly exceeds normal business needs is refused, and filing by deception or other improper means is prohibited outright, with opposition, invalidation and fines behind it (Article 19).^⁠[3]

Measure	Until 31 December 2026	From 1 January 2027
Refusing hoarding filings	Bad-faith applications not intended for use are refused (Article 4)	Applications not intended for use that clearly exceed normal business needs are refused (Article 19)
Penalty on the applicant	A warning, a fine or another administrative penalty, with no amount stated in the Law (Article 68)	A warning from the trademark enforcement authority, which may be combined with a fine of up to RMB 100,000, where the bad-faith filing causes adverse effects (Article 54)
Fine on the agency	RMB 10,000 to 100,000 (Article 68)	RMB 10,000 to 100,000, or RMB 100,000 to 200,000 in serious cases, for an agency that knew or should have known the filing was in bad faith and took it anyway (Article 67)
Unused registrations	Cancelled on application after three years without use	The same, and CNIPA may also cancel on its own initiative (Article 57)

CNIPA describes the applicant penalty as moving the point of prevention earlier, to the filing itself.^⁠[4] None of it changes the underlying rule. Timing still wins, and a squatter who files before you is still ahead of you; the new provisions make that filing riskier and easier to remove, not impossible.

Why can a registration in the right class still leave gaps?

Because examination works below the class. CNIPA divides each of the 45 Nice classes into similar groups (类似群) in its Classification of Similar Goods and Services, and assesses similarity group by group.^⁠[5] A registration covering clothing can leave footwear or headwear in the same class open to someone else, and your rights reach only the goods the registration names: the exclusive right is limited to the mark as registered and the goods it was approved for (Article 56). Goods outside that list need a new application (Article 23).^⁠[1]

This is where a specification copied from a home-country registration fails: it was not drafted against the Chinese groups, and the gaps fall where a filer will aim. Two further points:

• Class 35 is where selling other people’s goods is filed, as sales promotion for others rather than as a general retail service. A brand that sells online in China without a class 35 registration can find someone else trading under its name in a service category it never filed.
• A Madrid designation of China is convenient, not tailored. CNIPA has 12 or 18 months to refuse one,^⁠[6] and a specification drafted for another office is less likely to follow the Chinese groups than a national filing drafted for them. How the two routes compare is in the answer on first to file.

Do you need to register a Chinese-character name?

Yes, as a mark of its own. Characters, words, devices and their combinations are each registrable signs (Article 8), and a registered mark that needs to change its sign needs a new application (Article 24).^⁠[1] Registering the Latin-character name protects the Latin-character name. It does not protect the Chinese characters your customers will actually say and type.

Chinese consumers, media and marketplaces will produce a Chinese name for your brand whether you supply one or not, by transliteration, by translation or by nickname, and a name nobody has registered is available to anyone. So plan for at least three marks: the Latin-character mark, the Chinese-character mark, and the logo where it is recognised on its own. Choose the Chinese name deliberately, with someone who can hear how it sounds and read what the characters suggest, and file it before you use it.

How much does it cost to register a trademark in China?

RMB 270 per class in official fees if you file online, plus the agency’s own fee. A foreign company must file through a lawfully established trademark agency (Trademark Law, Article 18),^⁠[1] a rule that applies to foreign applicants with no habitual residence or place of business in China (Implementing Regulations, Article 5(4)).^⁠[7] The 2026 revision writes that limit into the Law itself (Article 11).^⁠[3] The agency’s fee is separate from CNIPA’s and is set by the agency.

Official fee	Online	Paper
Application, up to 10 items	RMB 270, plus RMB 27 per extra item	RMB 300, plus RMB 30 per extra item
Opposition	RMB 450	RMB 500
Cancellation for non-use	RMB 450	RMB 500
Invalidation, charged as a review fee	RMB 675	RMB 750
Renewal	RMB 450, plus RMB 225 if filed in the grace period	RMB 500, plus RMB 250 in the grace period

A registration lasts ten years from approval (Article 39) and is renewed in the twelve months before it expires, with six months’ grace after (Article 40).^⁠[1] Against that, the asymmetry is plain: three marks in three classes cost a few thousand renminbi in official fees, and every route to recover a registered mark runs for months before anyone decides anything.

How long does registration take?

About seven to eight months if nobody objects. CNIPA reports average examination pendency of four months,^⁠[10] and a mark that passes is then published for three months before it is registered.^⁠[11] From 1 January 2027 the publication period is two months rather than three (Article 36).^⁠[3] The revision says nothing about a mark published before that date whose three-month window is still running, so plan on the shorter period and check anything published late in 2026 with your agency. Refusals and oppositions add to that, and the full timetable is in the answer.

The two-month window matters in the other direction too. If you are watching the gazette for someone filing your name, you will have a month less to oppose from 2027, and gathering dated evidence of your own use from a head office on the other side of the world takes most of that.

What can you do if someone already has your mark?

Five things, and the date the other mark was published or registered decides which are still open.

• Oppose while the mark is in its publication period: three months from publication under the law in force to the end of 2026 (Article 33),^⁠[1] two months for marks published once the revision is in force.^⁠[3] It is the cheapest point to intervene.
• Invalidate a registered mark. On a prior right or a relationship such as agency, within five years of registration, with no limit for a well-known mark against a bad-faith registration; the decision is due within twelve months, extendable by six (Article 45). Where the registration was obtained by deception or other improper means, no period applies, and the decision is due within nine months, extendable by three (Article 44).^⁠[1]
• Cancel for non-use once the mark has gone three consecutive years unused without good reason; the decision is due within nine months, extendable by three (Article 49).^⁠[1] Filers who hoard rather than trade are exposed to this more often than people expect.
• Negotiate, usually through an intermediary and without showing how much you need it.
• Rebrand for China. Unglamorous, immediate, and sometimes the commercially right answer.

Each decision can be taken further on review and to court, which is how a dispute reaches years. What each route requires you to prove is set out in the answer on first to file.

What should you do before showing the brand to anyone?

1. File before approaching distributors, partners or platforms in China, not once the relationship has started.
2. File the Latin-character mark, the Chinese-character mark and the logo, in the similar groups that match what you sell and what you may sell in three years, including Class 35 if you will sell online.
3. If you filed at home within the last six months, claim priority: it must be declared in writing when you file in China, with a copy of the first application within three months (Article 25).^⁠[1]
4. Put who may register the brand, and what happens to any registration when the relationship ends, into the distribution or agency contract. That belongs in the commercial review before you sign.
5. Keep dated evidence of use and reputation, in Chinese where it exists. An opposition or an invalidation runs on it, and it cannot be assembled after the other side has filed.

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