Cautious: New Practice for Trademark Non-use Cancellation in China

Cautious: New Practice for Trademark Non-use Cancellation in China

Recently, quite a few applicants of Chinese trademark non-use cancellation applications received Notification of Correction from the Trademark Office of the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration), requiring them to submit some or all of the following:

（1） Basic information of the registrant of the trademark in question, including business scope, business status or existence status, its overall trademark profile, etc.;

（2） An investigation report with evidence about the registrant's sales of goods or provision of services, business premises or office premises, etc. if the registrant’s business is in operation;

（3） Online search result of the trademark in question on at least three comprehensive platforms or relevant industry special websites with screenshots of at least 5 consecutive pages of such search result from the first page.

It is one of the measures taken by the CNIPA to crack down bad faith non-use cancellations. At the moment, it is not clear yet whether the requirements indicated in the Notification of Correction will become routine requirements for all the non-use cancellation applications or they only apply to those suspicious ones.

If such requirements become compulsory, it will increase the cost for non-use cancellation in China, especially the requirement on the investigation report of the registrant's sales of goods or provision of services, business premises or office premises, etc. Before the Office started to issue such Notification of Amendment, the applicant of the non-use cancellation only needed to submit online search results without quantity requirement.

We are waiting for clarification from the CNIPA on the examination criteria on the proving duty of the cancellation applicant and hope it can be clearer soon.

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