Introduction China has completed the most consequential rewrite of its Trademark Law in over a decade. On June 26, 2026, the 23rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People's Congress adopted a comprehensive revision of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China — the fifth amendment since the law was first enacted in 1982, and the first substantive overhaul since the narrow 2019 revision. The revised law, comprising 87 articles across nine chapters (up from 73 articles in eight chapters under the outgoing law), will enter into force on January 1, 2027. Trademarks registered before that date remain valid. For brand owners, in-house counsel, and IP practitioners with China exposure, this is not a routine update. The revision touches registration standards, opposition timelines, well-known mark protection, damages calculations, and — perhaps most significantly — the treatment of bad-faith and speculative filings that have long troubled foreig...
Statutory Basis Section 33(1) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 provides that where the proprietor of an earlier registered trademark has acquiesced for a continuous period of five years in the use of a later registered trademark, with knowledge of that use, the earlier proprietor loses the right either to seek invalidation of the later mark or to oppose its use in relation to the goods or services for which it has been so used — unless the later mark was registered in bad faith. The essential elements of the defense may be summarized as follows: (a) The later mark must be registered. (b) The earlier registered proprietor must have been aware of the use of the later registered mark for a continuous period of five years or more. (c) The subsequent applicant or registered proprietor must have used the mark continuously throughout that five-year period. (d) The later mark, once registered, cannot be cancelled unless its registration was applied for in bad faith. (e) Use of the later mar...