The Trademark Office strictly regulates malicious cancellation of unused trademarks and fraudulent practices that mislead the public

Responding to public concerns, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) Trademark Office has actively addressed hot issues in the trademark field that affect people’s vital interests. Through targeted measures and multiple approaches, it strictly regulates malicious trademark cancellations and the use of trademarks to deceive or mislead the public, effectively maintaining trademark registration management order and continuously optimizing the business environment.

Regulating Malicious Trademark Cancellations Shows Initial Results

Repeatedly filing cancellation applications against the same trademark based on three years of non-use; filing cancellation applications against registered trademarks of different entities over a long period and in large quantities; filing cancellation applications despite knowing or should have known that others’ trademarks are in use… Some applicants and agencies have distorted the cancellation system into a tool for unfair competition and profit-seeking, maliciously abusing the cancellation process to achieve unfair competition, extort fees, or other improper purposes, drawing widespread social attention.

China’s National Intellectual Property Administration has actively responded to public calls by deploying requirements to strictly regulate malicious trademark cancellation behaviors. The Trademark Office has formulated and issued work plans, steadily advancing related work to strictly regulate malicious trademark cancellation activities.

Problem Analysis and Solutions

To hit the target, one must aim carefully. In recent years, the Trademark Office has adhered to a problem-oriented approach, precisely targeting the “bullseye” of issues with policy measures, summarizing experiences, accurately defining, and continuously regulating malicious trademark cancellation behaviors.

“Malicious trademark cancellation behaviors possess certain concealment. While conducting multi-dimensional research and accurately identifying different types of typical malicious cancellation behaviors, the Trademark Office has scientifically defined regulatory boundaries, effectively avoiding overreach,” said Xu Shengquan, Associate Professor at Nanjing University of Science and Technology’s Intellectual Property School and Director of Jiangsu Trademark Brand Research Center.

Multiple Measures for Targeted Regulation

To precisely regulate malicious trademark cancellation behaviors, the Trademark Office has focused on strengthening system construction and continuously improving review guidelines. By further clarifying judgment standards, it has effectively enhanced the precision of regulatory measures.

Simultaneously, the Trademark Office has continuously strengthened data monitoring to identify abnormal application behaviors, conducting daily monitoring of routine data such as cancellation application volume, completion volume, and non-acceptance lists. From January to July this year, the Trademark Office addressed applications from more than 10 applicants with abnormal behaviors according to relevant review opinions.

Additionally, the Trademark Office transferred clues about malicious behaviors where natural persons entrusted agencies to file cancellation applications over a long period and in large quantities, and where agencies forged identity documents, involving 2 natural persons, 7 agencies, and over 440 cancellation applications.

Enhanced Collaboration and United Efforts

To form a joint force in regulating malicious trademark cancellation behaviors and strengthening the verification of clues about such behaviors, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration has enhanced inter-departmental coordination, focusing on building an efficient comprehensive intellectual property management system.

The CNIPA’s Intellectual Property Protection Department and the Trademark Office jointly studied how to leverage local intellectual property management departments and intellectual property protection centers to better serve compliant enterprises and carry out work to regulate malicious trademark cancellation behaviors.

Eliminating Deceptive Trademarks

“Eggs from the mountains,” “0 additive” plums, “120W” chargers… Trademarks with hidden agendas that confuse consumers. Recently, media exposure revealed that some business entities play word games, pairing trademarks with products, trademark with advertising slogans, trademark with product packaging, etc., inducing consumers to misunderstand product quality, quantity, and other characteristics, attracting widespread attention.

The Trademark Office highly values issues in the trademark field that affect people’s vital interests, continuously strengthening specialized governance of deceptive trademarks, embedding systematic, holistic, and collaborative concepts throughout the governance process, enhancing the integration and coordination of governance elements, resolutely adopting a “zero tolerance” attitude, and making great efforts to strictly regulate behaviors that use trademarks to deceive or mislead the public, effectively safeguarding consumers’ legitimate rights and interests and a fair competition market environment.

Practical Policies and Effective Measures

“Using deceptive signs as trademarks can mislead consumers, create unfairness toward other competitors, and disrupt fair market competition order, causing damage to public interests,” said Feng Xiaoqing, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at China University of Political Science and Law, in an interview. “Such signs cannot be applied for trademark registration and are prohibited from being used as trademarks.”

At the trademark registration stage, the Trademark Office has formulated the “Guidance on Examining Deceptive Trademarks (Trial)” to use trademarks to mislead consumers’ hidden methods and their deceptive manifestations, focusing on goods closely related to people’s lives such as food, daily necessities, and production materials.

While strictly controlling examination and authorization, the Trademark Office has also established an effective investigation and disposa lWorking mechanism, promptly investigating and dealing with registered trademarks exposed by media as deceptive, and using information technology to actively conduct investigations and continuously evaluate disposals of registered trademarks in key areas related to national economy and people’s livelihood such as meat, eggs, milk, rice, flour, and oil. As of the end of July this year, the Trademark Office had examined 104,000 trademarks and invalidated 939 deceptive registered trademarks including “一品牛” (Yī pǐn niú), “树上熟” (Shù shàng shú), and “老灶煮” (Lǎo zào zhǔ).

Comprehensive Approach for Fundamental Solutions

Since the implementation of the “Systematic Governance of Malicious Trademark Registration to Promote High-Quality Development Work Plan” by China’s Intellectual Property Office in 2023, the Trademark Office has continuously incorporated the crackdown on deceptive trademarks into the overall governance of malicious trademark registration behaviors. As of the end of July this year, the Trademark Office had rejected nearly 1 million trademark registration applications that could easily mislead consumers.

To enhance governance quality and effectiveness, the Trademark Office will intensify efforts to improve the trademark examination Working mechanism, utilize artificial intelligence, big data, and other technical means to promptly identify problems, and handle them according to laws and regulations; strictly control trademark registration examination and authorization, improve examination standards, innovate examination rules, manage and control trademark registration in livelihood areas, and combat deceptive trademarks at the source; promptly research and resolve new situations and problems arising during the governance process, continuously improving the Targeted, precision, and effectiveness of strictly regulating deceptive trademark work.

Regulating behaviors that use trademarks to deceive or mislead the public requires coalescing multiple forces to form a governance synergy. According to reports, the Trademark Office will make strictly regulating deceptive trademarks one of the important tasks in combating malicious trademark registration, conducting integrated governance with combating malicious trademark squatting, hoarding, malicious cancellations, etc.; strengthen information sharing with the State Administration for Market Regulation, mutually cooperating and forming synergy; strengthen publicity, guide applicants to correctly apply for and use trademarks, and focus on building a good trademark registration ecology that meets high-quality development requirements.