The Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, as revised by the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress on 26 June 2026, will take effect on 1 January 2027. One change bears directly on trademark use: revised Article 57 keeps the rule that any entity or individual may apply to cancel a registered trademark that has not been used for three consecutive years without justified reason, and adds that the trademark authority under the State Council "may cancel" such a trademark, so that the authority can now start a cancellation on its own initiative rather than only on a third party's request.
Against hoarding, new Article 19 provides that an application for registration that is not intended for use and clearly exceeds normal production and business needs shall be refused; Article 54 adds that an applicant who files in breach of Article 19 will be given a warning by the enforcement authority and may additionally be fined up to 100,000 yuan. From 2027, therefore, an unused registration may be cancelled on a competitor's application or cleared away by the authority itself, and bulk filings beyond business needs can themselves attract a penalty. J&C recommends that companies holding large defensive or reserve trademark portfolios complete a portfolio clean-up before the new law takes effect, compile use evidence for the last three years mark by mark and class by class, and decide, for marks with no use plan, whether to let them lapse rather than renew them.
