The Provisions on the Trial of Administrative Cases of Trademark Authorization and Confirmation were promulgated on 10 Jan. 2017 and entered into force on 1 Mar. 2017.

There are 31 articles in total, which aim to provide a uniform law application standard for Chinese courts to hear the administrative cases of trademark authorization and confirmation.

The key points are as follows:

1.The administrative case of trademark authorization and confirmation refers to the case in which the opposite party or the interested party brings a lawsuit to the court because he or she is not satisfied with the administrative actions of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce under the State Council, such as trademark denial review, trademark non-registration review, trademark revocation review, trademark invalidation declaration and invalidation declaration review.

2.The Provisions mainly concern how should the court examine the following matters:

(1) Whether the trademark is “identical or similar” to the name of the People’s Republic of China;

(2) Whether the trademark or its constituent elements are deceptive;

(3) Whether the trademark or its constituent elements have “adverse effects”;

(4) Whether the trademark possesses distinctiveness;

(5) Whether the trademark is a generic name;

(6) Whether the trademark constitutes a reproduction, imitation or translation of its unregistered well-known trademark;

(7) Whether the trademark damages the copyright, name right and trade name of others;

(8) Whether the trademark applicant uses improper means to preemptively register the trademark with certain reputation used by others first;

(9) Whether the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board violates the legal procedures.