Using copyright in your logo against a China trademark squatter (作品登记)

China protects the artwork in a foreign company’s logo as copyright from the day it is drawn, with no filing. That copyright can block or cancel a Chinese trademark that copies the logo, within set time limits. A Chinese copyright registration certificate dated before the copier’s application is evidence of ownership that the Supreme People’s Court names.

You have filed your brand name in China, and perhaps the logo too, in the classes you sell in. Then a Chinese company files your logo for goods you never covered. Your trademark registration is limited to the goods it lists. The drawing itself is protected another way, as a copyright, and a copyright is not registered by class. It can be the ground that stops the other filing.

The catch sits years back, with whoever drew the logo. If an outside designer drew it and nothing in writing passed the copyright to you, the designer owns it in China. You cannot register the copyright, and you may not be the one entitled to use it against a copier.

Is our logo protected by copyright in China if we never registered it?

Yes, if the logo is a work and your country shares a copyright treaty with China. The Copyright Law protects a foreign author’s work under any agreement or treaty both countries belong to (Article 2).^⁠[1] The Berne Convention has been in force for China since 15 October 1992.^⁠[2]

A work is an original creation that can be expressed in some form, and fine-art works (美术作品) are one of the listed kinds.^⁠[1] Drawn figures and designed lettering can qualify. Your brand name set in an ordinary typeface gives copyright little to protect, which is why the copyright route is for the drawn part of a logo and the trademark is for the name. Whoever is named on a work is presumed its author unless there is proof otherwise (Article 12).^⁠[1]

A design agency drew our logo. Who owns the copyright?

The agency, unless a contract says otherwise. For a commissioned work, ownership is whatever the two sides agreed, and where there was no contract or the contract is silent, the copyright belongs to the party commissioned (Article 19).^⁠[1] Passing the copyright to you after the event needs a written contract.^⁠[1]

Who drew it, on what terms	Who owns the copyright in China	What you need to show ownership
An outside designer, with a contract giving you the copyright	You	The contract
An outside designer, with no contract or one that is silent	The designer	A written assignment from the designer, which moves the copyright to you
An outside designer, assignment signed later	You, from the assignment	The commission and the assignment, together

Work by employees follows a separate rule. The author generally keeps the copyright, unless the work falls in a listed exception or the employment contract gives it to the company (Article 18).^⁠[1] Find the original commission before you do anything else. An assignment is easiest to get while the designer is still easy to reach.

What does registering the copyright in China add?

A dated certificate. Registration is voluntary and changes nothing about who owns the copyright.^⁠[3] Its stated purpose is to give preliminary evidence (初步证据) when ownership is disputed: evidence that stands until the other side proves otherwise.^⁠[3] The Copyright Law lets owners register with the registration body the National Copyright Administration designates.^⁠[1] At national level that is the Copyright Protection Center of China (中国版权保护中心), which keeps the national registration archive and has handled applications fully online since 2022.^⁠[4,5]

1. Works by foreign authors and owners, and by those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, are registered at national level, not by a provincial copyright bureau.^⁠[3]
2. The applicant is the author, another owner of the copyright, an exclusive licensee, or an agent for one of them.^⁠[3]
3. The applicant files the registration form with a sample of the work, proof of identity and proof of who owns it: for a commissioned logo, the contract or the assignment from the table above.^⁠[3,4]
4. The Measures give the registry one month to check the file (Article 9), and the National Copyright Administration set a 30-day limit to complete the registration and issue the certificate.^⁠[3,4]

The Measures date from 1994 and leave fees to be set separately. Confirm the current fee and the documents a foreign company must provide with the registry when you file.

How does a copyright stop a Chinese trademark that copies our logo?

A trademark application may not harm another person’s existing prior right (Trademark Law, Article 32), and a copyright that existed before the other side applied is such a right.^⁠[6,7] You raise it with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), by opposing the application or by asking for the registration to be declared invalid. The court reviewing CNIPA’s decision asks three questions: is the logo a work, are you its owner or another party entitled to claim, and does the mark infringe it.^⁠[7]

The Supreme People’s Court lists what can prove ownership (Article 19). It names the design drafts, the original and the contract by which you acquired the right. It also names a copyright registration certificate dated before the disputed mark’s application date.^⁠[7,8] A certificate issued after the copier filed is missing from that list. A brand that registers its copyright only after finding the copy relies on its drafts and contracts instead.

The goods matter less than they do for a trademark. A claim that you used the logo first and the copier filed by unfair means fails where the copier’s goods are not similar to yours.^⁠[7] The copyright test asks only whether the mark infringes the work, and says nothing about the goods.^⁠[7]

How long do we have to object?

Step	Trademark Law 2019	Trademark Law 2026, from 1 January 2027
Opposition异议	Within 3 months of the mark’s preliminary publication (Article 33)	Within 2 months of the mark’s preliminary publication (Article 36)
Invalidation无效宣告	Within 5 years of registration (Article 45)	Within 5 years of registration (Article 51)

The five-year limit has one exception in the 2026 law, and it belongs to the owner of a well-known trademark facing a bad-faith filing (Article 51).^⁠[9] A copyright owner has no such exception.

Take a Dutch maker of cycling clothes whose bird logo was drawn by a freelance designer in 2019 under a contract assigning the copyright. It registered the logo for clothing in China, and holds a Chinese copyright certificate from 2024. A company in Fujian applies for the bird on bags in March 2026, and CNIPA publishes the application on 20 January 2027. Under the 2026 law the opposition period is two months, so it ends on 20 March 2027.^⁠[9] The 2024 certificate predates the application and goes in with the 2019 contract.^⁠[7]

Which law sets the opposition period for a mark published close to 1 January 2027 is covered in old or new Trademark Law after 1 January 2027. If the copier is your own distributor or agent, a separate ground applies, set out in getting your brand back from a distributor.

We have no copyright certificate at home. Does that matter?

Most brands have none, because their own country never required one.

Country	Is there a register?	What registration does there
United Kingdom	No. Protection is automatic, with no application or fee	Nothing to register
United States	Yes, with the Copyright Office, and voluntary	Required before suing for infringement of a US work

A UK company therefore holds no dated official record of its logo anywhere. In a Chinese dispute it relies on drafts and contracts unless it registered the copyright in China before the copier filed. The same timing applies to the brand’s Chinese name, covered in choosing a Chinese brand name. A copyright can also ground a takedown notice to a shopping platform, as taking down fake listings on Taobao and Tmall explains.

Will the copyright route change in 2027?

The ground survives, with new numbers and wording. From 1 January 2027 the prior-rights rule is Article 24, and it protects existing prior lawful rights and interests (在先合法权益) where the 2019 text said prior rights.^⁠[9] The opposition period shortens to two months; the five-year invalidation limit stays.^⁠[9]

The Supreme People’s Court published a draft revision of its Provisions on 14 September 2026, with comments open until 28 October 2026.^⁠[12] The draft keeps the sentence naming a certificate dated before the disputed application as preliminary evidence of ownership.^⁠[12] It is a draft, and its text and numbering can change before it is adopted. A trademark strategy settles which parts of the logo go on the register, in which classes, and what copyright evidence to have ready before the brand is shown in China.

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