China: Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China
August 30, 2013
China: The Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the 4th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on August 30, 2013, and shall come into force on May 1, 2014.
Among the amendments to the Trademark Law are the following: possibility to register sound marks; protection of well-known trademarks, principle of good faith for registration and use of trademarks; measures against bad faith applications; multi-class applications and e-filing; new time frames for examination period of applications, establishment of invalidation procedure, and increase of penalties for trademark infringements.