Old or new Trademark Law? How China decides cases that straddle 1 January 2027

China’s revised Trademark Law takes effect on 1 January 2027. A Supreme People’s Court draft, open for comment until 28 October 2026, sets which version courts apply to cases that straddle the date. Each rule turns on an event: when a mark was published or approved, when a cancellation was sought, or when a squatter acted.

The revised Trademark Law (商标法) was adopted on 26 June 2026 and comes into force on 1 January 2027.^⁠[1] What changes that day is set out article by article in the answer on first to file. This page covers the harder question for anyone with a filing, an opposition or a dispute already running: which of the two laws decides it.

The date you file is not the test. Under the draft the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) published on 14 September 2026, the answer depends on the kind of proceeding, and each kind has its own trigger date.^⁠[2]

What has the Supreme People’s Court proposed?

Eight articles on the temporal effect (时间效力) of the revised law, published for comment with a separate draft revising the SPC’s rules on trademark grant and confirmation cases.^⁠[2] Comments close on 28 October 2026. As drafted, the provisions take effect with the law on 1 January 2027 and apply to first- and second-instance cases not yet concluded that day (Article 8). They are rules for courts; how CNIPA handles the same cases at the examination stage is the subject of its own draft, covered in the last section.

Case	Law the court applies	Article
Infringement and other civil disputes	The law in force when the facts giving rise to the dispute occurred	1
Refusal, or refusal after opposition, challenged in court	The law in force when CNIPA made its review decision	2
Invalidation challenged in court	The law in force when the registration was approved	3
Cancellation challenged in court(撤销)	The law in force when cancellation was applied for, or when CNIPA started it of its own motion	4
Administrative penalty	The law in force when the act occurred, unless the law in force at the decision is lighter or does not treat the act as unlawful	5
Procedural questions	The law in force when the procedural step was taken	6
Opposition period and invalidation time limit	Opposition: three months for any mark published before 1 January 2027. Time limit: the law in force when the registration was announced	7

Is the opposition window three months or two around 1 January 2027?

Three months for any mark whose preliminary approval was published before 1 January 2027, under draft Article 7.^⁠[2] The current law gives three months from publication (Article 33);^⁠[3] the revised law gives two (Article 36).^⁠[1] The draft ties the window to the publication date, not to the date an opposition is filed, so a window opened in 2026 keeps its full length after New Year.

Two dates show the effect. Published on 20 December 2026, a mark stays open to opposition into late March 2027. Published on 5 January 2027, it closes in early March, before the December one. So a watch service reporting publications in the first weeks of 2027 is reporting marks with two months to run, not three.

Which law decides an application filed in 2026 but refused in 2027?

If the refusal reaches court, the law in force when CNIPA made its review decision (draft Article 2).^⁠[2] An application filed in November 2026, refused, and reviewed by CNIPA in March 2027 is judged under the revised law, even though it was filed under the old one. The same rule covers a mark refused registration after an opposition.

This matters most for the refusal ground aimed at hoarding. Today a bad-faith application not made for use is refused (Article 4).^⁠[3] From 2027 the ground is an application not made for use that also clearly exceeds normal business needs (Article 19).^⁠[1] Which wording a court reads depends on the date of the review decision, not the filing.

Which law applies when you try to invalidate a squatter’s registration?

The law in force when the registration was approved (draft Article 3).^⁠[2] A squatter’s mark approved in 2026 is tested in court against the grounds of the 2019 text, whenever the invalidation is filed. A mark approved after 1 January 2027 is tested against the revised law.

The deadline for a prior-right holder is measured under the law in force on the day the registration was announced (draft Article 7).^⁠[2] Under either text the deadline is the same: five years from registration (2019 Article 45; 2026 Article 51). The owner of a well-known mark has no time limit against a bad-faith registration.^⁠[1,3]

Does a non-use cancellation filed in December 2026 run under the old law?

Yes. The draft applies the law in force when cancellation was applied for (Article 4).^⁠[2] For the applicant the test reads the same in both texts: a registration unused for three consecutive years without a proper reason can be cancelled on anyone’s application (2019 Article 49; 2026 Article 57).^⁠[1,3]

What is new is the second route. From 2027 CNIPA may also cancel such a registration of its own motion (Article 57).^⁠[1,4] Under the draft, a cancellation CNIPA starts itself is governed by the law in force on the day it starts, so that route exists only from 1 January 2027. The three-year clock and renewal dates for a mark you hold are in the China compliance calendar.

Will the 2027 fines reach a mark filed in bad faith in 2026?

Under the draft, a penalty follows the law in force when the act occurred (Article 5). The exception is where the law in force at the decision is lighter, or no longer treats the act as unlawful.^⁠[2] For a bad-faith filing made in 2026, that points to the 2019 text, which allows a warning or a fine and states no amount (Article 68).^⁠[3] The revised law provides for a warning, which may be combined with a fine of up to RMB 100,000 (Article 54), and it reaches filings made from 1 January 2027.^⁠[1] What else the revised law does to squatters is in trademark squatting and first to file.

Which law applies to an infringement dispute?

The law in force when the facts behind the dispute occurred (draft Article 1).^⁠[2] Facts after 1 January 2027 are judged under the revised law. Facts before it are judged under the law and judicial interpretations then in force, unless a law or interpretation provides otherwise. The draft does not say how a court divides conduct that starts in 2026 and continues into 2027.

What is still open before the law commences?

Three things, as of 30 September 2026.

• The SPC text is a draft. Anyone may comment by letter, email or fax to the SPC until 28 October 2026, and the adopted provisions may differ from the articles above.^⁠[2]
• CNIPA has its own draft. On 28 September 2026 CNIPA published a ten-article draft of Measures for Handling Business under the Revised Trademark Law (施行修订后的商标法相关业务处理办法). It covers the transition from the old law to the new, and supporting rules for the revision. A draft revision of CNIPA’s Trademark Examination Guidelines came with it. Comments close on 12 November.^⁠[5] It governs what CNIPA does with applications, oppositions and cancellations before any court is involved.
• The two may not match. The SPC rule on the opposition window is the rule a court applies when it reviews a case. Whether CNIPA adopts the same cut-off for oppositions it receives is for its own measures to say.

Before 1 January 2027, the practical work is fixing each date the drafts turn on: publication, approval, the review decision, the day a cancellation is filed. Trademark strategy and filing coordination starts from that timeline.

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