On March 19, 2021, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) joined the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) TMview trademark searching tool. TMview will include trademark data made available by CNIPA, taking the total number of trade marks in the search tool from 62 to over 90 million from 75 participating IP Offices. Over 32 million Chinese trademarks are now available in TMview to all users to search free of charge. TMview is available here: https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview.
Category: Trademarks
Chinese Customs Issues Typical Cases of Customs Seizures in 2020
On April 27, 2021, the General Administration of Customs, China, released the Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Enforcement by Chinese Customs (中国海关知识产权保护典型案例). Registration of intellectual property (IP) rights with Customs enables Customs to block both the import and export of infringing products. The 10 typical cases were for mainly for the export from China of counterfeit or infringing products including clothing, headphones, medicine, personal care products, chemicals and more.
China to Further Crack Down on Malicious Trademark Applications and Irregular Patent Applications; Potentially Raise Filing Fees
On March 11, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the on Notice on Deepening the Reform of “Delegation, Administration, and Service” in the Field of Intellectual Property, Optimizing the Innovation Environment and Business Environment (国家知识产权局关于深化知识产权领域“放管服”改革优化创新环境和营商环境的通知). The Notice has a total of 16 Articles including reducing trademark and patent examination time; improving the quality of trademark and patent applications; improving the efficiency of intellectual property (IP) public services; enhancing IP protection capabilities; strengthening the supervision of the IP …
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration Starts Blocklist for Malicious Trademark Applicants
On May 8, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a briefing on intellectual property. At the briefing, He Zhimin, deputy director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), stated that the CNIPA firmly opposed and promptly cracked down on malicious trademark registration and “irregular” (or abnormal) patent applications. He stated, “Since the beginning of this year, in terms of trademark substantive examination, [CNIPA] has rejected more than 10,000 malicious trademark registration applications that are not intended for use; …