China protects IP on a territorial basis: rights registered elsewhere generally don't extend here automatically, treaty exceptions aside. That single fact is why IP strategy in China can't be an afterthought to market entry, it has to happen alongside it, and often before it.
Timing matters more than usual right now. China's Trademark Law is undergoing its most significant revision in over a decade, and an overhauled trade secrets regime has already reshaped how companies can respond when confidential information walks out the door. For foreign investors, this is a practical window to audit existing filings, close gaps, and register outstanding rights before the new regime takes hold, not just a compliance footnote.
What's changing in China's IP regime?
Three regulatory moves, taken together, are the most consequential shift in China's IP framework in years.
China's NPC Standing Committee passed a new amendment to the Trademark Law on June 26, 2026, set to take effect January 1, 2027, aimed at addressing longstanding problems including bad-faith registration, agency misconduct, and deceptive trademark use.
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Change |
What it means for foreign businesses |
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Public right to report trademark violations (Art. 70) |
Any third party, including competitors, can now trigger an investigation into your trademark use, widening regulatory exposure alongside giving you a new complaint channel |
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"Motion signs" now registrable (Art. 14) |
Animated logos and moving marks can be formally protected for the first time |
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Expanded prohibited-mark categories (Art. 15.1) |
Clearance checks now need political and cultural sensitivity review, not just similarity search |
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Crackdown on bad-faith registration, fines up to RMB 100,000 (Arts. 19, 54) |
Stronger grounds to oppose or invalidate squatted marks |
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Higher agency penalties, up to RMB 200,000 (Arts. 67, 68) |
Stronger standing against agents who facilitate abusive filings |
On February 24, 2026, SAMR issued Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets, effective June 1, 2026, repealing 1995-era rules and expanding from 12 to 31 articles, work that had been paused to align with the 2025 amendment to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. The practical change: the new provisions create an administrative enforcement channel alongside civil litigation, with injunctions and fines of up to RMB 5 million available through market regulators, though not damages. They adopt a presumption-of-infringement standard similar to the AUCL, lowering the evidentiary burden that has historically made trade secret cases hard to bring, and Article 29 gives the rules extraterritorial reach.
The State Council's Provisions on Handling Foreign-Related Intellectual Property Disputes took effect May 1, 2025, and direct China's IP and commerce authorities to strengthen guidance and support services for foreign-related dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration. One operational detail worth flagging to litigation counsel: Article 12 restricts how evidence may be collected in mainland China for these disputes, requiring compliance with PRC procedural law and applicable treaties rather than direct overseas-style discovery.
What are your main options for protecting IP in China?
There is no single "IP strategy”, the right combination depends on what you're protecting and how exposed it is.
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Right |
What it covers |
Registration route |
Best suited to |
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Brand names, logos, Chinese-language marks, increasingly "motion signs" |
CNIPA filing; first-to-file system |
Nearly every foreign entrant, this is the non-negotiable first step |
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Invention / utility model / design patent |
Technical solutions, functional improvements, product appearance |
CNIPA filing; implementing regulations in force since January 20, 2024, raised minimum statutory rewards for employee inventions from RMB 3,000 to RMB 4,000, and introduced a deferred examination option |
Manufacturers, hardware, product-design-driven businesses |
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Copyright |
Packaging art, manuals, marketing materials, software code |
Automatic on creation; formal registration creates an evidentiary record |
Companies wanting a faster, cheaper evidentiary backstop alongside trademark/design filings |
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Trade secret |
Formulas, algorithms, supplier data, customer lists |
No registration, protected through confidentiality measures and (since June 2026) administrative complaint |
Technical know-how, source code, pricing and customer data |
A few things worth acting on early:
- Register the Chinese-language version of your mark, not just the English one. China's first-to-file system means rights flow from registration, not use, and an unregistered Chinese name leaves room for squatters or distributors to define how your brand is known locally.
- NNN agreements, not standard NDAs, should govern supplier relationships. Non-disclosure, non-use, and non-circumvention clauses, drafted in Chinese, under Chinese governing law, are what actually holds up if a manufacturer misuses your designs.
- Since November 2023, apostille has replaced consular legalization for documents used in China filings. The Apostille Convention entered into force for China on November 7, 2023, so powers of attorney and corporate documents supporting trademark, patent, or litigation filings move faster than the multi-step legalization timelines many teams still budget for.
How to register your IP?
A domestic IP registration/filing in China is required to protect your IP in the country effectively.
China primarily follows a "first-to-file" rule for IP registration, which means that the first entity or individual to register IP rights will hold those rights exclusively, regardless of the original user, with limited exceptions such as prior use rights, protection of well-known marks, and increasing scrutiny of bad-faith filings. Thus, the first and most important strategy we can recommend is to register/file your intellectual property rights in China as soon as possible.
The tables below summarize the patent, copyright, and trademark registration procedures.
Patent registration
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Patent Registration |
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Necessity |
Patent is valid and protected in China only after proper registration |
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Requirement |
|
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Authority in charge |
Patent Office of China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) |
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Procedure |
Invention patent ⇒ Preliminarily search and analyze the application availability ⇒ Prepare documents and submit the filing ⇒ Application acceptance ⇒ Application fee payment ⇒ Application classification ⇒ Preliminary examination and verification ⇒ Supplement of docs per requirement (if any) ⇒ Application for substantial examination ⇒ Substantial examination (+ OA, if any) ⇒ Patent right grant ⇒ Handling Patent registration formalities and submitting registration fees ⇒ Issuance of Patent certificate Utility model: ⇒ Preliminarily search and analyze the application availability ⇒ Prepare documents and submit the filing ⇒ Application acceptance ⇒ Application fee payment ⇒ Application classification ⇒ Preliminary examination and verification ⇒ Supplement of docs per requirement or Patent right grant ⇒ Handling Patent registration formalities and submitting registration fees ⇒ Issuance of Patent certificate
Design: ⇒ Preliminarily search and analyze the application availability ⇒ Prepare documents and submit the filing ⇒ Application acceptance ⇒ Application fee payment ⇒ Application classification ⇒ Preliminary examination and verification ⇒ Supplement of docs per requirement or Patent right grant ⇒ Handling Patent registration formalities and submitting registration fees ⇒ Issuance of Patent certificate |
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Timeline |
Invention: 2-3 years, for a high-value patent, could have a chance to shorten to 1.25 years Utility model: 6-9 months Design: 6-9 months |
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Validity* |
Invention: 20 years Utility model: 10 years Design: 15 years |
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* Calculated from application date. |
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Copyright registration
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Copyright Registration |
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Necessity |
Although copyright can be automatically gained upon creation and protected in China according to the international convention or agreements China signed, market participants who ever got their copyright registered can better defend against any infringement as the official certificate would at least save time and cost for proving the ownership. Besides, for software copyright, the registration certificate is required in software copyright transactions. |
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Requirement |
|
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Authority in charge |
National Copyright Administration and its local branches |
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Procedure |
⇒ Documentation preparation ⇒ Application submitting ⇒ Acceptance of application documentation ⇒ Fee payment ⇒ Preliminary and substantive review ⇒ Issuance of the registration certificate and publish on the website* |
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Timeline* |
1.5-3 months |
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Validity |
Indefinite period: The right of authorship, right of revision, and right to preserve the integrity of the work of an author shall not be subject to restriction.
The entire life span of the author and 50 years following their death: Individual author’s rights of publication, reproduction, distribution, rental, exhibition, performance, screening, broadcasting, information network transmission, filming, adaption, translation, and compilation.
50 years following the first publication of the work: Rights of publication, reproduction, distribution, rental, exhibition, performance, screening, broadcasting, information network transmission, filming, adaption, translation, compilation of works of a legal person or any other organization and works created in the course of employment in which copyright (except for right of authorship) belongs to a legal person or any other organization. (if there’s no publication within 50 years from completion of the creation of the work, it shall not be protected by this Law.)
50 years following the first publication of the work: Rights of publication, reproduction, distribution, rental, exhibition, performance, screening, broadcasting, information network transmission, filming, adaption, translation, compilation of film works, works created using methods similar to filmmaking and photographic works. (If there’s no publication within 50 years from completion of the creation of the work, it shall not be protected by this Law.) |
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*Different types of copyright registration may differ. |
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Trademark registration
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Trademark Registration |
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Necessity |
Trademark registrants enjoy exclusive rights to use trademarks and are protected by the law. Due to the “first-to-file” principle in China, trademark registration should be made as early as possible. |
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Requirement |
|
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Authority in charge |
Trademark Office of CNIPA |
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Procedure |
⇒ Registration availability pre-checking ⇒ Documentation preparation ⇒ Application submitting ⇒ Preliminary review of documentation and issuance of acceptance notice (only indicate the documentation complied with the basic requirements) ⇒ Substantive review of registration availability ⇒ Preliminary approval and announcement notice (3 months for others to raise opposition, if any) ⇒ Final approval and registration announcement ⇒ Issuance of registration certificate |
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Timeline* |
3-6 months |
|
Validity |
10 years |
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*Calculated from registration date |
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How to file your IP rights with customs?
Businesses engaged in import-export should file their patent, copyright, or trademark with the customs authorities. This is necessary because:
- It is a prerequisite for the customs to take active IP protection measures;
- It helps customs find infringing goods; and
- It can have a deterrent effect on the infringer.
To file with customs, applicants shall either be the IP owner (for trademark and patent, its IP registration shall be done with the competent authority of China, and for copyright, its country of origin should be a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works) or a qualified agent in China.
Timeline
The IP customs filing takes around 1.5 months.
General procedure
- Documentation preparation;
- Application submitting;
- Review of application;
- Fee payment; and
- Filing successfully.
How should you choose between administrative, civil, and customs enforcement?
The mistake most companies make is treating every infringement the same way. A tiered approach matches the response to the actual commercial risk.
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Tier |
Typical scenario |
Appropriate response |
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Routine |
Obvious counterfeit listings, small sellers, marketplace misuse of marks |
Platform takedowns, warning letters, customs recordal , standardized, low-cost tools |
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Persistent |
Repeat sellers, distributors, suspect suppliers |
Evidence collection (test purchases, notarized records) plus administrative complaints to market regulators |
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Major |
Source factories, organized networks, large exporters |
Civil litigation, injunctions, criminal referral, concentrated legal resources |
The enforcement environment itself has matured. Specialized IP courts and tribunals now operate in major cities, eight-figure RMB damages awards against domestic infringers are no longer unusual, and courts can order corrective statements published on the infringer's own social channels , a real deterrent in a market where brand reputation moves through Weibo and Xiaohongshu as much as through the courtroom.
A recent, widely covered luxury-brand trademark win in China illustrates both sides of this: the legal system delivered a clear victory, but the scale and sequencing of the underlying enforcement campaign shaped public reaction as much as the verdict did, a reminder that enforcement decisions in China carry commercial and reputational weight beyond the legal outcome, not a reason to under-enforce.
What do foreign companies most often get wrong?
- Entering the market before filing. First-to-file means a competitor or squatter can register your mark while you're still finalizing your entity setup.
- Filing only the English mark. The Chinese-language name, including common transliterations or nicknames consumers coin themselves, is frequently left exposed.
- Treating manufacturing agreements as boilerplate. Ownership of molds, tooling, and packaging files is rarely spelled out clearly enough to prevent overruns or backdoor sales.
- Escalating every infringement equally. Blanket litigation burns budget without improving deterrence; routine cases should be automated, not litigated.
- Assuming trade secret enforcement is still court-only. With the SAMR administrative channel now live, disputes that once required a full civil case can move faster through a market regulator complaint.
Where does local advisory support change the outcome?
Four areas where on-the-ground presence matters more than general counsel back home:
- Portfolio audits ahead of the January 2027 deadline. Confirming which existing registrations and disputes the new bad-faith and agency provisions actually reach.
- Agent due diligence. With higher penalties now attaching to agency misconduct, verifying your trademark agent's standing matters more than it used to.
- Administrative filings under the new trade secrets regime. Building the confidentiality documentation and evidence file that makes a SAMR complaint viable.
- Cross-jurisdiction portfolio coordination. For investors protecting the same brand or technology across China alongside Vietnam, Indonesia, or India, keeping filings and enforcement strategy consistent across markets avoids gaps a single-market advisor would miss.
The companies that benefit from the China’s IP system are the ones that register early and review often, not the ones that wait for a dispute to force the issue.
With over three decades of experience, Dezan Shira and Associates is a leading intellectual property service provider in China and broader Asia, offering a deep understanding of IP registration, trademark protection, and market entry consulting. Our dedicated advisors help businesses manage IP risk services, safeguard innovations, and maximize the value of their intangible assets.
