What we do
Clearance search
We search the CNIPA register for your mark and for anything close enough to block it before filing.
Class & subclass strategy
China divides each of the 45 classes into subclasses, and marks in different subclasses of the same class are often treated as non-conflicting. Filing the way you would at home can leave part of your own market open to someone else, so we map the subclasses your business actually needs.
Your Chinese name
If you do not choose a Chinese-character brand name, the market will choose one for you and someone else will register it. We help pick one that reads well and files cleanly.
When to file
A common pattern: a company ships to China through a distributor for two years, decides to formalise, and finds the distributor or a professional squatter registered the mark in year one. File before you appoint anyone. Background reading: trademark squatting and first-to-file.
How it runs
- Brief. The mark, the Latin and Chinese versions you are considering, what you sell now and what you expect to sell, in the form below.
- Search and read. The clearance search run and interpreted, including the partial conflicts a plain search result does not flag.
- Class map and filing plan. The classes and subclasses to cover, the defensive filings worth making, and the order to file in.
- Filing and tracking. The mark is filed, and we track office actions, publication and the certificate. We are not a trademark agency and never file in our own name.
Tell us about the mark
Fill in what you know. Blanks are fine — they are what the first conversation is for.
If you are registering a company too
Company setup is a separate engagement, and one quote covers all of it: the business licence, the chops, the bank account and tax registration.
Company setup & compliance coordinationCommon questions
- Do I need a Chinese company to register a trademark in China?
- No. A foreign company or individual can own a Chinese trademark directly. But under Article 18 of the Trademark Law, a foreign applicant with no place of business in China must file through a licensed Chinese trademark agency. You cannot file at CNIPA yourself from abroad.
- Someone has already registered my brand in China. Now what?
- You have options and they are time-sensitive: opposition during the three-month publication window, invalidation on bad-faith grounds, non-use cancellation once a mark has been registered three years without genuine use, or a negotiated purchase.
- How long does trademark registration in China take?
- The strategy is done in days: the clearance reading, the class map and the filing plan. Registration takes 9–12 months, and we track it through to the certificate. Our first-to-file insight sets out what filing costs, and what losing a mark costs.
Often engaged together
Illustrative combinations from the programme examples on the pricing page. Each figure is the sum of the component floor prices; the written quote for your scope is what we charge.
- Setting up, protected and compliant : Company Setup & Compliance Coordination + Trademark Strategy & Filing Coordination + Annual Compliance Check & Company Deregistration, from US$1,380
Read first
Short answers from our answers library to the questions that usually come before this service.
In depth
Longer reads from our insights on the work this service covers.
