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Rules on Trademarks Containing “China” Or “National” have been released

09.08.10 10:34 Age: 14 yrs
Rules on Trademarks Containing “China” Or “National” have been released

4 August 2010

“Criteria for the Examination of Trademarks Containing ‘China’ or the Character ‘National’ as the First Word” has been released by The State Administration for Industry and Commerce on 28 July, 2010. In its goal of consummating works on trademark, strict rules have been issued in accordance with Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China.

Pursuant to the Criteria, Trademarks Containing ‘China’ shall be rejected unless the applicant is set up on approval of the Sate Council or authorized organs and the trademark being the same as its business name, within its scope of business.

The Criteria on trademarks with the character “national” as the first word is even stricter. Any application for trademarks containing or consisting of “national + name of specific goods under the trademark” or trademarks shall be rejected on the ground of “constituting exaggerated and deceitful advertising”, “lack of distinctive characters” and “detrimental to socialist ethics or customs”. The application for a trademark with the character “national” as the first word but not consisting of “national + name of specific goods under the trademark”, however, shall be treated differently.

“It is a progress on government’s attitude towards this issue of trademarks. Even though Trademark Law has been released for years, it is not detailed and strict enough as it shall be on this issue. Hopefully, there will be some change.” commented John Lee, Senior Attorney of Lehman, Lee & Xu.

To learn more about us, please visit our website at www.lehmanlaw.com.

 

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