Chinese Trademark

Activity Review
Report on Trademark Activity in China 2010-2018
Table Of Contents
3 INTRODUCTION
3-4 The Motivation Behind China’s
Intellectual Property Expansion
5 CHINA: FACT SHEET
6 TRADEMARK FILING ACTIVITY OVERVIEW
6 Trademark Applications
7 Data Age and Average Lifetime
of a Trademark
8 Trademark Processing Times
9-10 CLASSES - TRENDS
10-11 TOP PRODUCTS
12 TOP FILERS
13 FINAL THOUGHTS
14 STAND UNOPPOSED
15 DATA SOURCES
15 REFERENCES
 Introduction
The Motivation Behind China’s
Intellectual Property Expansion
China is now the world’s second biggest economy (after the
USA). In 2018, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in China was
worth $13.608 trillion USD (The World Bank Group 2019).

Although in 2018 Chinese GDP growth was at the slowest rate in

the past 28 years (Harada 2019), in spite of this recent slowdown,
the country remains the fast-growing economy in the world today
with +7% in GDP in 2018, according to the National Bureau of
Statistics.

Economic, as well as social factors, have supported the rapid

growth of intellectual property in China. According to
TrademarkNow data, in 2001 China became the top trademark
filer in the world. In 2016, the volume of Chinese trademarks filed
exceeded a 50% share of all trademarks filed worldwide.

Economic and Social Factors

Deng Xiaoping introduced the concept of the socialist market
economy to China in 1978 and since the 1980s, China has been
the fastest growing economy in the world with an annual growth
rate of nearly 10% from 1978 to 2005 (The World Bank Group
2019). This market reform opened the country up to foreign
investment and lowered other trade barriers. China was “open for
business” and the government began to support
entrepreneurship, foreign and domestic investment, and trade. An
undeveloped country, that had endured famine, had become an
economic superpower in less than 40 years.

China now has the largest population in the world. In 2018 the
population stood at 1.393 billion (The World Bank Group 2019)
and investment by the government in people has been a strategy
that has worked spectacularly well. The Chinese education
system is ranked as one of the best in Asia (Wilkinson 2018) and
access to a good education coupled with a rising economy in
China has lifted more people out of poverty than anywhere else in
the world. Chinese workers have flocked to urban cities and
productivity and wages have grown substantially.

These social factors have led to a new Chinese consumer class

(Hancock 2019) with significant purchasing power. China is a
hugely attractive market and companies have been investing
heavily and vying for brand presence as a result.

3 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Acquisition and Protection
of Trademarks

However the acquisition of trademarks and the on-going

protection of trademark rights in China is a rather complex task
for trademark professionals. This is mainly due to the language
barrier, trademark legislation specifics and vast trademark
volumes.

Trademark activity in China is monitored not only by in-house and

outside trademark counsel, but also by corporate strategists and
business development teams. Their remit includes the oversight
of trending products, new brands that their competitors are
launching and also keeping a close eye on any domains of
interest that companies in China are innovating and operating in.
Any business that has a vested interest in trading in China will
want to keep informed of developments in Chinese trademark
activity.

The scope of this ebook focuses on the most interesting aspects

of Chinese trademark filing activity over the last 8 years, from
2010 to 2018, as revealed through TrademarkNow data analysis.

- TrademarkNow Team

4 Introduction
 CHINA
CN WIPO/MP

Official Register
CNIPA (National Intellectual Property Administration of China)

Opposition Period Renewal Dates

3 months after the

publication date 10 years from the
registration date
Grace Period Process Flow

6 months after the

renewal date
Application

Opposition
Registration

5 Introduction
 Trademark Filing
Activity Overview
Trademark Applications
In 2018 over 10 million trademarks were filed worldwide and
almost 70% of all trademarks were filed in China. The second
most active trademark filer in 2018 was the United States with 4%
(470 thousand) of trademarks filed. The United States was
followed by India with 3% (260 thousand) of trademarks filed
globally.

Registries Ratio
China SAIC 68%

United States USPTO 4%

India IPI 3%

Since 2001 (and for more than 18 years) China has remained in
pole position as the absolute leader when it comes to trademark
filing activity. During an 8 year period (2010 to 2018) the number
of trademark applications in China increased almost 7 (+660%)
times, from over 1 million in 2010, to more than 7 million
applications in 2018.

8,000,000

6,000,000

CNIPA & WIPO

Trademark Applications 4,000,000

2,000,000

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Year

It is interesting to note that less than 1% of all CNIPA (National

Intellectual Property Administration of China) trademarks were
filed through WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization).

6 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Data Age and Average Lifetime
of a Trademark
Data includes both WIPO Only 10% of the trademarks registered (and still valid) in China
and CNIPA registrations are older than 11 years, when accounting for the renewal age and
the grace period. Such a low percentage can be explained by the
ever-increasing numbers of new trademark applications filed
> 11 years each year.
10%
Thus, 90% of Chinese trademark applications filed are actually
younger than 11 years. This fact also explains the average young
age of a Chinese trademark. As of 2018, the average age of a
trademark in China was just 5 years.
1-10 years
90%

Trademark Processing Times

The trademark processing time in China has been steadily
decreasing since 2013. This denotes an ongoing improvement in
the processing of trademarks by the CNIPA. The median time
from trademark application to registration in 2017 was only 12
months.

20 17 17

14 14 14 14
13
15 12

Months (median) from Trademark

10
Application to Registration (CNIPA)

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Year

7 Trademark Filing Activity Overview

 Classes - Trends
Even though product-related Nice Classes 1-34 have dominated
Chinese trademark applications, in recent years, we can clearly
see the trend of more applications being filed in service-related
Nice Classes 35-45. In 2018 34% of trademarks filed were
service-related trademarks, as opposed to just 22% of those filed
in 2010.

100%
22% 23% 24% 25% 28% 34% 34% 32% 34%

80%
78% 77% 76% 75%
72%
Products 68%
60% 66% 66% 66%
(Nice Classes 1-34)
vs
Services
40%
(Nice Classes 35-45)

20%

0%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Year

Nice Class 43 When analyzing the distribution of the Nice Classes, it is

(Hotels and Restaurants) important to note that, of the 7 million trademarks that were filed
330k
in China in 2018, 13% of them were filed in Nice Class 35
350,000
270k
(Advertising and Business), 8% in Nice Class 25 (Clothing),
followed by Nice Classes 9 (Electrical and Scientific Devices) and
250,000
170k 30 (Staple Foods) with a 6% share each. It is also interesting to
150,000
note that 5% of trademarks were filed in Nice Class 43 (Hotels
and Restaurants) and that Class 43 made it into the top 5 filed
50,000 classes only recently, in 2018.
2016 2017 2018

35
Year 13%
25
35 Advertising and Business 8%

25 Clothing
9
6%
9 Electrical and Scientific Devices
30
30 Staple Foods 6%
43
43 Hotels and Restaurants 5%

Other Classes
63%

8 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
The Fastest Growing Nice Classes The Top Nice Classes
The fastest growing rates in the number of trademarks The top classes in which trademarks were filed in
filed in China in 2018 were found in Nice Classes 35, China in 2018 were Nice Classes 35, 25, 9, 30 and 43.
40, 27, 33 and 23.
+43% in Class 35 (Advertising and Business) +43% in Class 35 (Advertising and Business)
+37% in Class 40 (Manufacturing) +2% in Class 25 (Clothing)
+37% in Class 27 (Floor Coverings) +25% in Class 9 (Electrical and Scientific Devices)
+36% in Class 33 (Wines and Spirits) +24% in Class 30 (Staple Foods)
+26% in Class 23 (Yarns and Threads) +28% in Class 43 (Hotels and Restaurants)

35 Advertising and business +43%

25 Clothing +2%
9 Electrical and scientific devices +25%
30 Staple foods +24%
43 Hotels and restaurants +28%
41 Education and entertainment +22%
29 Meats and processed foods +25%
3 Cosmetics and cleaning preparations +31%
5 Pharmaceuticals and medical supplies +27%
42 Research and development +26%
33 Wines and spirits +36%
31 Natural agricultural products +20%
11 Environmental control apparatus +20%
20 Furniture and natural materials +7%
32 Light beverages +31%
16 Paper goods and printed matter +18%
21 Housewares and glass +27%
7 Machinery +27%
44 Medical, cosmetic and agricultural services +30%
18 Leather goods +25%
28 Toys and sporting goods +22%
36 Insurance and financial +27%
On average, each Nice Class saw a 23%
10 Medical devices +21%
increase rate in trademark filings in 2018,
14 Jewelry +11%
when comparing with the number of
38 Communication +26%
filings the previous year, in 2017.
37 Construction and repair +24%
39 Transportation and storage 19%
6 Metal goods +21%
12 Vehicles +35%
24 Fabrics +28%
1 Chemicals +16%
19 Non-metallic building materials +11%
45 Social and legal services +27%
40 Manufacturing +37%
8 Hand tools and cutlery +30%
27 Floor coverings +37%
2 Paints +25%
17 Rubber goods +28%
4 Lubricants and fuels +18%
26 Sewing supplies +27%
15 Musical instruments +31%
22 Cordage and fibers +28%
34 Smokers’ articles +33%
23 Yarns and threads +36%
13 Explosives and firearms +34%

0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000

9 Classes - Trends
 Top Products
Even though the number of service trademark applications has
been growing steadily, it is product classes that are still
dominating CNIPA’s trademark applications. In 2018, almost 70%
of CNIPA trademark applications were filed in product classes.

Nice Classes 25 (Clothing), 9 (Electrical and Scientific Devices),

30 (Staple Foods), 29 (Meats and Processed Foods),
3 (Cosmetics and Cleaning Preparations), 5 (Pharmaceuticals and
Medical Supplies), and 31 (Natural Agricultural Products) were the
top product classes in China in 2018.

25 Clothing
Top 10 Products
Clothing 77 %
Footwear 65 %
Hosiery 61 %
Gloves 55 %
Scarves 48 %
Hats 47 %
Corsets 26 %
Swimwear 22 %
Neckties 14 %
Trousers 11 %

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

9 Electrical and Scientific Devices

Top 10 Products
Computer software applications,downloadable 33%
Software 20%
Eyeglasses 13%
Computers and computer hardware 11%
Galvanic batteries 10%
Games software 9%
Downloadable computer game programs 8%
Still cameras 7%
Measuring, counting, alignment and calibrating instruments 7%
Computer games programs downloaded via the internet [software] 7%

0 10 20 30 40

30 Staple Foods
Top 10 Products
Honey 32%
Sugars, natural sweeteners, sweet coatings and fillings, bee products 27%
Salts, seasonings, flavourings and condiments 26%
Coffee and substitutes therefor 26%
Pastries, cakes, tarts and biscuits (cookies) 22%
Noodles 18%
Cereal based snack foods 11%
Bread 11%
Rice 11%
Coffee-based beverages 10%

0 10 20 30 40

10 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 29 Meats and Processed Foods
Top 10 Products
Meats 50%
Prepared nuts 44%
Oils and fats 43%
Birds eggs and egg products 27%
Fish 21%
Dairy products and dairy substitutes 20%
Milk 18%
Fruit snacks 16%
Fruit preserves 14%
Crystallized fruits 9%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

3 Cosmetics and Cleaning Preparations

Top 10 Products

Make-up 62%
Foundation make-up 61%
Toothpaste 38%
Essential oils 33%
Beauty masks 31%
Hair lotions 28%
Perfume 24%
Incense 22%
Soaps for personal use 13%
Soaps 13%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

5 Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies

Top 10 Products
Pharmaceuticals 23%
Dietetic foods adapted for medical purposes 16%
Pharmaceuticals for veterinary use 13%
Nutritional supplements 12%
Insecticidal preparations 11%
Disinfectants and antiseptics 9%
Vitamin and mineral supplements 9%
Dietetic foods for use in clinical nutrition 9%
Dietary supplements and dietetic preparations 9%
Dietetic beverages adapted for medical purposes 9%

5 10 15 20

31 Natural Agricultural Products

Top 10 Products
Fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables and herbs 67%
Fresh fruit 62%
Live animals, organisms for breeding 48%
Plants 41%
Foodstuffs for animals 38%
Live trees 35%
Plant seeds 23%
Fresh nuts 22%
Flowers 18%
Live fish 10%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

11 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Top Filers
Tencent (腾讯科技有限公司), the world’s largest gaming, social
media, venture capital and investment company, is also one of
the world’s most valuable technology companies. It takes 1st
place on the list of top 10 CNIPA filers in 2018.

Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.,

(百度在线网络技术(北京)有限公司)operates in the internet
publishing, broadcasting and web search portals industry and
was placed 4th on the list of top filers in 2018.

Beijing Didi Infinity Technology and Development Co., Ltd.

(北京嘀嘀無限科技發展有限公司), the leading Chinese mobile
transportation platform, software development and IT consulting
company, was 9th on the list.

Beijing Jingdong 360 Degree E-commerce Co., Ltd.

(北京京東叁佰陸拾度電子商務有限公司), is a subsidiary of Jingdong
(京东), that focuses on e-commerce services, was placed 10th.

If we take a closer look at the remaining 6 filers (highlighted in

red) on the Top 10 Filers list, they all have 4 things in common (in
addition to being top filers). Firstly, they are all based in the same
province Guangdong (广东). Secondly, their trademarks were all
filed within the same period of time (between January 2018 and
July 2018). Thirdly, these companies have no significant business
operation activities and were established not long before the
filings, according to the Chinese Nationwide Company Credit
Information System (全国企业信用信息查询系统). Finally, all of the
trademarks filed by these owners were rejected by the CNIPA
leaving the owners with a combined loss of 1.2 million EUR.
These 4 common identifiers leads one to believe that these were
bad faith applications - the CNIPA successfully identified that
fact and thus rejected their applications on this basis.

Top Filers
1. 腾讯科技有限公司 / Tencent

2. 广州朗佰商贸有限公司 / Guangzhou Langbai Trading Co., Ltd.

3. 珠海冠芮贸易有限公司 / Zhuhai Guanrui Trading Co., Ltd.

4. Baidu Online Network Technology Co., Ltd.

5. 广州南象贸易有限公司 / Guangzhou Nanxiang Trading Co., Ltd.

6. 珠海云非凡贸易有限公司 / Zhuhai Yunfeifan Trading Co., Ltd.

7. 珠海至多新贸易有限公司 / Zhuhai Zhiduoxin Trading Co., Ltd.

8. 珠海典昱贸易有限公司 / Zhuhai Dianyu Trading Co., Ltd.

9. 北京嘀嘀無限科技發展有限公司 / Beijing Didi Infinity Technology and Development Co., Ltd.

10. 北京京東叁佰陸拾度電子商務有限公司 / Beijing Jingdong 360 Degree E-commerce Co., Ltd.

12 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Final Thoughts
To conclude, when examining the volume of trademark filings in
2018, China is by far the biggest player in the world. Over 7
million, almost 70% of all trademarks filed worldwide, were filed
in the CNIPA. The country’s GDP is continuing to expand at a rate
higher than 6% (in spite of a recent slowdown) and this has
continued to positively influence Chinese trademark filing activity.

Processing of trademark applications filed in the CNIPA is getting

faster. In 2017 the median time from application to registration
reached a 12 month benchmark - a 2 month improvement on the
2016 median time. In 2018 product classes still had the biggest
share in trademark applications (66%), even though the number
of service-related trademarks were growing steadily.

Nice Classes 35 (Advertising and Business), 25 (Clothing), 9

(Electrical and Scientific Devices), 30 (Staple Foods), and 43
(Hotels and Restaurants) were the top 5 classes of 2018.
Burgeoning trademark activity resulted in a relatively young
average age of 5 years for trademark applications in China. Only
10% of all valid applications are older than 11 years.

Due to the complexities of the language barrier, trademark

legislation specifics and trademark volumes, companies seeking
to acquire trademark rights for their brands in China need to have
a robust trademark strategy in place. After registering their marks
in the top trademark filing country in the world, brand owners
need to strategize in order to ensure the on-going protection of
their trademarks against the millions of applications filed in China
every year.

13 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Stand Unopposed
We, at TrademarkNow, believe that in a country with such high
volumes of trademark filings (over 20 thousand trademark
applications are filed every day), it is important to have a
powerful trademark management tool in place to enable your
trademark strategy and to let you navigate through the data
quickly and seamlessly.

TrademarkNow clearance tool, NameCheck saves you time by

getting your trademark search reports ranked and analyzed in
order of threat in seconds. The reports include translations (not
only from Chinese, but from over 200 other languages as well),
transliterations, Common Law data sources, global company
data, pharma-in-use data, the main app store aggregators, social
media results and domain availability, litigiousness assessment,
semantic similarity reporting, brand strength owner details - as
well as full trademark and owner details and overview.

Discover how
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14 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
 Data Sources
Our analysis relies on trademark application data received from the CNIPA and designated
to China through WIPO. There may exist variations between records necessarily affecting
the accuracy of the results presented here. All data is provided by the CNIPA and WIPO
which has been gathered by using TrademarkNow’s databases and AI platform. Data
includes Chinese trademarks applied for between January 1st, 2010 - December 31st, 2018.
The data is raw data and any kind of filters and standardization to eliminate anomalous
outliers, has not been used. The numbers for other factors (like length of trademark text or
Applicant origins) are calculated from the TrademarkNow database and it is only possible to
do thanks to our great data structure. All data on the list was calculated and gathered in
August, 2019.

References
Hancock, Tom, 2019, ‘Chinese consumers: your country needs you’,
Financial Times, 26 February 2019, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://www.ft.com/content/074395d2-38f2-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0.

Harada, Issaku , 2019, ‘China's GDP growth slows to 28-year low in 2018’,
Nikkei Asian Review, 21 January 2019, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s-GDP-growth-slows-to-28-year-low-in-2018.

The World Bank Group 2019,

China Data, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://data.worldbank.org/country/china.

Wilkinson, Bard, 2018, ‘China leads Asia rise in 2019 World University Rankings’,
CNN Asia, 27 September 2018, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/27/asia/times-education-rankings-global-intl/index.html.

15 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Authors
Elena Gorbatenko Data Analysis and Content Writer
Content Production Assistant

Peng Gong Data Analysis and Content Writer

Data Manager

Gokcen Uzer Cengelci Data Analysis and Content Writer

Trademark Counsel

Mikko Virtanen Data Analysis

Data Scientist

Petri Hienonen Graphic Design

Graphic Designer

Lisa Wright Content Writer

Content Writer