In China’s trademark law, trademark protection refers to the institutionalized practice of protecting trademarks. China has adopted an aggressive stance on protecting trademarks.
The goal of trademark protection is to ensure the law protects the exclusive rights of a registrant in their trademark, and to put others on notice that they may not use that mark or a similar mark. Violators of exclusive rights protection will be held liable at law. The general public should be able to use trademarks to distinguish between different goods and services. Additionally, consumer and business rights are fully protected.
The first step to get protection for a trademark is to register it, thus gaining exclusive rights to mark the goods or services and to license the mark to other businesses.
Chinese trademark law authorizes two methods for protecting trademarks. First, the jurisdictional business regulator or the police economic crimes unit are both lawfully empowered to investigate possible trademark counterfeiting or infringement, with either law enforcement agency able to receive and act on reports of violations. Moreover, a trademark registrant may file a lawsuit against infringers with the court of competent jurisdiction. A trademark may be registered in China for a term of ten years and renewed an unlimited number of times for a fee. However, renewals must be done within the statutory renewal term.
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