China has introduced uniform law enforcement standards on Trademark Protection

08.10.2020

China has introduced uniform law enforcement standards on Trademark Protection

In order to implement the decision and deployment of the Chinese Central Committee and the State Council (“The SPC”) on strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, strengthen the guidance of trademark enforcement, unify the enforcement standards, and strengthen the protection of trademark exclusive rights, the State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”) has recently issued the “Standards in Determining Trademark Infringement ” (hereinafter referred to as “The Standards”).

After the reform of the Chinese Communist Party and the state institutions in 2018, the Chinese central government has made it clear that the State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”) is responsible for the operational guidance of trademark and patent enforcement work, “developing and guiding the implementation of trademark rights, patent rights confirmation and infringement judgment standards.” The formulation of “The Standards” is not only a practical need to implement the requirements of institutional reforms and strengthen the guidance on trademark enforcement business, but also a specific measure to implement the “Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights” and its promotion plan.

“The Standards”, which are effective forthwith, are within the framework of the “Chinese Trademarks Law” (“The Law”), based on the trademark enforcement operational guidance function, systematically sorted out and summarized the beneficial experience and practices of trademark administrative protection over the years, and provided specific operational guidelines for relevant trademark enforcement departments in accordance with The Law. These measures create an environment of intellectual property protection with high transparency and predictability. The “Standards” have a total of thirty-eight articles that specify the use of trademarks, the identical goods, similar goods, the identical trademarks, similar trademarks, and likelihood of confusion, disclaimers, conflict of rights, restrictions, and identification of rights holders.

The person in charge of the Protection Department of the SIPO said that the next step would be to do a good job in interpreting the policies of the Standards, increase training, and promote the implementation of the Standards. At the same time, the Department shall continue to work on the guiding cases, typical cases, administrative answers, and constantly improve the operational guidance system, improve the level of law enforcement protection, increase the protection of intellectual property rights, and create a good operational environment.