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China Trademark Registration: Why First-to-File Wins

Tips
Jul 1, 2026
Hand signing a legal document with a fountain pen, representing filing a China trademark registration

China trademark registration runs on a rule that catches almost every foreign business off guard the first time they meet it: whoever files first owns the mark inside China, no matter who built the brand, who used it first overseas, or how well-known it already is. Lawyers call this “first-to-file.” In practice, a small apparel label or a boutique skincare brand can lose its own name in China before shipping a single unit there. This is not only an Apple- or Tesla-scale problem. Local opportunists, trademark squatters, increasingly target smaller businesses precisely because they notice less and fight back less. Often the trigger is mundane: a company exhibits at a trade show, lists a product on Alibaba or 1688, or gets tagged in a press mention, and within days someone files the brand name, the logo, or its Chinese transliteration with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, or CNIPA.

So the real question is not whether first-to-file feels fair. It doesn’t, particularly. The question is what a foreign business does about it. This guide walks through the CNIPA process end to end: the paperwork, the Nice Classification classes, the realistic timeline, the actual costs, and the mistakes that leave brands exposed. It also covers what happens after the fact, once a squatter has already beaten a business to the registry.

What “First-to-File” Actually Means for Trademark Registration in China

Most Western systems, including the United States, still weigh who used a mark first in commerce. China does not. Rights belong to whoever files at CNIPA first, full stop, regardless of overseas reputation, prior use, or any moral claim to the name (Harris Sliwoski, n.d.; Yucheng IP Law, 2025). File one day later than a squatter, and that is effectively the whole case, lost.

Squatters count on exactly that gap. Some hoard names to resell them back to the rightful brand at a markup. Others go further, using the registration as legal cover to manufacture lookalike goods, since they, on paper, legitimately own the mark inside China (Harris Sliwoski, n.d.). Either way, the foreign business ends up negotiating from weakness, or rebranding outright.

Beijing knows this damages its own credibility as a destination for investment. CNIPA’s 2026 work report commits to tightening rules on trademark agencies and to “intensifying” enforcement against bad-faith squatting and hoarding (National Law Review, 2026a). That is an improving backdrop, though not a substitute for filing early.

The China Trademark Registration Process, Step by Step

Two routes lead to the same registry. A foreign applicant can file directly and nationally with CNIPA, or file internationally through the Madrid Protocol via the World Intellectual Property Organization, naming China as a target country. Either way, an applicant without a business address in China must appoint a CNIPA-recognized trademark agency to handle the filing. Direct filing at the counter stays reserved for foreign nationals who already hold a China residence permit valid for at least a year (CNIPA, 2026a).

Choosing the Right Nice Classification Classes and Subclasses

China follows the international Nice Classification’s 45 classes, the same system used across most of the world. CNIPA then layers its own subclass system inside each class, and this detail trips up more foreign filers than anything else does. Items in one subclass count as similar; items in a different subclass usually don’t, even inside the identical class (Gowling WLG, 2019). Class 25, clothing, splits into 13 subclasses; Class 30 stretches to 19. File only a generic class heading, and a squatter can still legally register a near-identical mark one subclass over. The safer approach: list at least one specific item inside every subclass that matters, then file defensively in whatever class a squatter would likely target next — Class 35, retail and advertising services, is a common one.

Documents CNIPA Requires From Foreign Applicants

The paperwork is not complicated, though every foreign-language document needs a Chinese translation before CNIPA accepts it (CNIPA, 2026b). Expect to provide:

  • A completed trademark application form
  • A clear drawing of the mark, including any planned Chinese-character version
  • A copy of the business license, or for an individual applicant, a passport and residence document
  • A notarized power of attorney authorizing the Chinese agency to file and represent the applicant

Businesses that already hold a home-country filing get one more lever. File in China within six months of that original filing date, and the Chinese application can claim the earlier date as its priority date, under the Paris Convention (CNIPA, 2026b). Miss that window, and the China filing date becomes the priority date instead, which matters enormously if a squatter files in between.

Examination, Publication, and the Opposition Window

Once filed, CNIPA runs a substantive examination that averaged about four months in 2025, among the fastest of any major trademark office worldwide (SanyouIP, 2025). A mark that clears examination gets published in the Trademark Gazette for a three-month opposition period, during which any interested party, including a rightful owner who discovers a squatter’s filing, can formally object (Global Trademark Company, n.d.). If nobody opposes, CNIPA issues the registration certificate. A clean, unopposed China trademark registration typically reaches that certificate in roughly 12 months from filing; an opposed one can run 18 months or longer (Global Trademark Company, n.d.).

What China Trademark Registration Really Costs

The official fees are modest. CNIPA charges CNY 270, about $39, per class for an electronic filing covering up to 10 goods or services, plus roughly CNY 27 per additional item. Renewal every 10 years runs about CNY 450 per class (Yucheng IP Law, 2025).

Agent fees make up the bulk of the real bill, since foreign applicants need a licensed Chinese agency no matter how simple the filing looks. Budget roughly CNY 2,000 to 3,000, around $280 to $420, per class for standard agent service, plus CNY 1,000 to 1,500 for a clearance search beforehand (Yucheng IP Law, 2025). All told, a single-class filing with a search typically lands between $300 and $600. A multi-class defensive filing, covering the core product class, the Chinese transliteration, and an adjacent class like retail, can run $1,500 to $3,000 or more, still a small fraction of what a later buyout negotiation tends to cost.

Common Mistakes That Undermine China Trademark Registration

  • Filing only the English-language mark, and skipping the Chinese transliteration or nickname customers actually use
  • Registering too narrow a class list, or relying on a class heading instead of subclass-specific items
  • Waiting until market entry feels certain before filing anything at all
  • Assuming a home-country trademark protects the brand inside China, when it grants nothing there
  • Handing a name with real commercial weight to a low-cost, non-specialist filing agency

New Balance remains the clearest cautionary tale. It registered its English-language mark in China but left its Chinese nickname, Xin Bai Lun, unregistered, a name a domestic shoemaker had already filed years earlier. In 2015, a Guangzhou court found New Balance’s Chinese affiliate liable for infringing that registration, ordering roughly CNY 98 million, about $16 million, in damages, plus an injunction against further use of the name (National Law Review, 2015). The lesson runs well beyond footwear: whatever name Chinese customers actually say out loud needs its own registration, official or informal.

Already Squatted? Recourse After Someone Else Filed First

Discovering a squatter already owns a brand’s name is not necessarily fatal, though every remedy costs more time and money than filing early would have.

If the squatter’s application is still pending, publication triggers that three-month opposition window, the fastest way to block it (Global Trademark Company, n.d.). Miss that window, and three paths remain. An invalidation petition asks CNIPA to cancel a registered mark, generally within five years of registration, though China’s Trademark Law lifts that limit entirely for a well-known mark registered in bad faith (WIPO Lex, 2019). A bad-faith challenge relies on the 2019 Trademark Law amendment, which lets CNIPA reject or invalidate applications filed without any genuine intention to use, and fine agencies that knowingly file them anyway (China Briefing, 2019). Or, often fastest in practice, negotiate a buyout, even though it feels like paying ransom for a name that should already belong to the brand.

The Michael Jordan case shows both the possibility and the price of fighting back through the courts. Qiaodan Sports, a Chinese company, registered the Chinese transliteration Chinese media had used for Michael Jordan for two decades, alongside a jumping-silhouette logo and the names of his sons. Jordan sued in 2012, lost at the lower courts, and only won at China’s Supreme People’s Court in December 2016, which ruled that his fame in China gave him a protectable prior right in the name, even without any commercial use of it himself (Supreme People’s Court of China, 2016). Four years, multiple court levels, for someone with Jordan’s resources. Most small businesses cannot sustain that fight, which is really the argument for filing before the problem exists.

A Defensive China Trademark Registration Checklist Before You Enter

  • File before any China-facing activity — no trade show floor, no Alibaba listing, no announcement, until the application is in
  • File the English mark and the Chinese transliteration together, choosing the version customers will actually say out loud
  • Cover the core product class plus the subclasses that matter, adding a defensive class like retail services where counterfeiting is a realistic risk
  • Pair the filing with company formation, since trademark registration sits naturally alongside the paperwork needed to register a company in China, with much of the documentation overlapping
  • Renew on schedule — a 10-year registration lapses without renewal, reopening the door to a squatter

Practical Tips for Foreign Businesses

Work with a trademark agency that specializes in China rather than a generalist — subclass strategy is a specific skill, and getting it wrong costs nearly as much as not filing at all. Monitor the Trademark Gazette, or have the agency do it, even years after registration, since squatters sometimes target a brand’s next product line rather than the original mark.

Treat the filing as insurance, not paperwork. Weighed against a lawsuit, a buyout, or a full rebrand, the few hundred dollars a single-class China trademark registration costs is close to the cheapest risk management available to any business serious about why business in China is worth the effort in the first place.

References

China Briefing. (2019). China’s 2019 trademark law amendment: What’s new. Dezan Shira & Associates. Retrieved from https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-2019-trademark-law-amendment-whats-new/

China National Intellectual Property Administration. (2026a). How can foreign applicants apply for trademark registration? Retrieved from https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/3/17/art_2996_205374.html

China National Intellectual Property Administration. (2026b). Priority document application guide for foreign trademark applicants. Retrieved from https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/3/17/art_3645_205365.html

Global Trademark Company. (n.d.). China trademark opposition before CNIPA. Retrieved from https://globaltrademarkcompany.com/blog/china-trademark-opposition-cnipa

Gowling WLG. (2019). China’s trademark subclass system: A guide to what foreign companies need to know. Retrieved from https://gowlingwlg.com/en/insights-resources/articles/2019/china-s-trademark-subclass-system-a-guide-to-what

Harris Sliwoski. (n.d.). China trademark registration: How to stop squatters from stealing your brand. China Law Blog. Retrieved from https://harris-sliwoski.com/chinalawblog/china-trademark-registration-how-to-stop-squatters-from-stealing-your-brand/

National Law Review. (2015). Chinese court stuns New Balance with $16 million verdict: Lessons on doing business in China. Retrieved from https://natlawreview.com/article/chinese-court-stuns-new-balance-16-million-verdict-lessons-doing-business-china

National Law Review. (2026a). CNIPA releases work report of the 2026 directors’ conference — Intensify crackdown on patent applications that violate good faith and malicious trademark squatting. Retrieved from https://natlawreview.com/article/cnipa-releases-work-report-2026-directors-conference-intensify-crackdown-patent

SanyouIP. (2025). The CNIPA released core data on China’s intellectual property development in 2025. Retrieved from https://www.sanyouip.com/en/insights/content/3/813.html

Supreme People’s Court of China. (2016). Michael Jeffrey Jordan v. Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and Qiaodan Sports Co., Ltd. (2016) ZGFXZ No. 27. Retrieved from https://english.court.gov.cn/2022-07/14/c_788905.htm

WIPO Lex. (2019). Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (2019 Amendment). World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved from https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/19559

Yucheng IP Law. (2025). China trademark registration fee: A complete cost guide 2025. Retrieved from https://yciplaw.com/china-trademark-registration-fee-a-complete-cost-guide-2025/