China will further regulate trademark registration and step up its crackdown on deceptive and misleading trademarks to encourage innovation and support high-quality economic development, according to a newly revised law.
The amended Trademark Law was adopted on Friday as the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, concluded its latest session. Consisting of 87 articles across nine chapters, the law will take effect on Jan 1, 2027, in response to public concerns over trademark-related issues.
"In recent years, new situations and problems have emerged in China's trademark field, particularly the repeated occurrence of malicious trademark applications that seriously squeeze public resources in this regard," the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission said.
"At the same time, insufficient penalties for infringement, excessive rights enforcement by trademark registrants and disorder among trademark agencies have also become acute," the commission added.
Malicious trademark registrations include conduct that violates the principles of legality and good faith, such as trademark hoarding and squatting, unauthorized appropriation, imitation, infringement of others' prior rights, misuse of public resources, and large-scale or repeated bad-faith registrations.
