The Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Trademark Law”) was enacted in August 1982, four years after China commenced its transition to a market economy. The Trademark Law came into force on March1, 1983 and has been amended twice so far. The First Amendment was made in 1993 under pressure from the United States, and the Second Amendment was made in October 2001 to facilitate World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.

There have been significant changes to each aspect of China’s economy since its entry into the WTO in December 2001. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has tripled within 8 years.1 This period of rapid economic growth has led to sharp increases in trademark filings and registrations. In 2001 the Chinese Trademark Office received 270,417 applications for registration of trademarks and issued 202,839 approvals for registration. In 2006, applications grew to 766,319, and registrations increased to 275,641,2 representing an 83% increase in filings and a 35.9% increase in registrations, within a period of only five years. As a result, the period of time between filing and substantial examination of applications has increased from one year in 2001 to two to three years nowadays.

The Chinese government recognizes the need to update the Trademark Law in response to China’s domestic economic growth and an increasingly important role it plays in the global economy and has made efforts to introduce necessary reforms.

From 2003 to 2006, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) invited individuals and organizations, including foreign industrial associations and professional organizations, to provide comments on how to amend the Trademark Law. Since then, SAIC has prepared at least three draft versions of the revised Trademark Law for internal discussions. One of the draft versions — a draft Third Amendment — was published in 2007 for public comments.

Currently, the top legislature began deliberating a draft amendment to the Trademark Law that would prevent the malicious registration of trademarks that are already in use.

"Applications should not be accepted if the applicants know beforehand that the trademarks to be registered are already in use by other companies," says the draft, which was submitted to the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for review.

The draft is intended to curb the malicious registration of trademarks by individuals who have insider knowledge of other companies using said trademarks.

The amendment also offers protection for renowned trademarks, giving their owners the right to ban others from registering the trademarks or using similar ones -- even if such trademarks are not registered.

In such a case, the trademark in question must be determined to be well-known, with results to be valid only for that specific case, the amendment states.

1. http://www.cov.com/files/Publication/dc0b253e-29a4-4111-8675-a3d014db7722/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/9c1d4559-ecd0-47d1-acef-4c7b57244c4d/Amending%20China's%20Trademark%20Law.pdf
   
   
2. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/751965.shtml