By Liao Fei, Intellectual Property group, King & Wood Mallesons

According to Article 14 of the Trademark Law, well-known trademarks in China can be recognized through judicial and administrative channels. The administrative recognition can be made in three procedures, including cracking down on trademark infraction cases, trademark opposition cases and trademark dispute cases (i.e. review of opposition decision refusing registration, and invalidation). In November 2019, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Well-known Trademarks in Handling Cases Involving Trademark Infraction (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice“). As of the first quarter of 2021, the CNIPA has received 344 applications for recognition of well-known trademarks through the procedure of handling tradmark infraction cases, and approved 69 of them.

In order to further tackle the problems existing in the recognition and protection of well-known trademarks by some local administrative departments, enhance the level of well-known trademark protection, in May 2021, the CNIPA newly issued “ Understanding and Application of ‘Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Well-known Trademarks in Handling Cases Involving Trademark Infraction’” (hereinafter referred to as “Understanding and Application“), which not only reiterated and emphasized the important provisions in the original “Notice”, but also made more detailed interpretation of some key contents such as qualified authorities for case filing, material review, standardized use, citing precedents for protection, protection of key brands. It provides some new guidelines and ideas for enterprises in respect of well known trademark recognition and protection under new situations. This article introduces and analyzes some important contents as follows. Continue Reading CNIPA Issued Guidance on ‘Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Well-known Trademarks in Handling Cases Involving Trademark Infraction