China’s Trademark Law was originally enacted in 1982, and amended twice in 1993 and 2001, respectively. The third amendment was in 2013, launching in 2014. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (PRC) approved amendments on April 23, 2019, and the amended Trademark Law came effect on November 1, 2019. The approved amendments contain six articles, with four main points as follows:
- Strengthening regulations for bad faith applications. An addition was made to Art. 4 Para. 1 specifically stipulates that an application for the registration of a bad faith trademark which is not for the purpose of use shall be rejected. An addition to Art. 68 Para. 4 also stipulates that filing trademark applications in bad faith is subject to administrative penalties such as a warning or a fine.
- The new law prohibits trademark agencies from representing clients if the trademark agencies know or should know the trademarks to be filed for registration by such clients fall under the circumstances as prescribed in Article 4.
- The amendment increases penalties for trademark infringement. Where the infringement is committed in bad faith, the maximum punitive damages are increased from one to three times of the relevant base amount to one to five times. Where it is difficult to determine the base amount, the maximum punitive damages are increased from 3 million renminbi (RMB) (about US$436,000) to 5 million RMB (about US$727,000).
- Adding measures against bad-faith trademarks. The amendments empower the trademark registration authority to reject bad-faith applications at the examination stage. Furthermore, the amended law discourages trademark infringement by expanding the scope of destruction of infringing goods to include the materials and tools used to manufacture the products.
