When a Bigger Company Uses Your Brand Name in China: Prior Use and Reverse Confusion

On 5 October 2026, US software company TradeSun sued OpenAI in the Northern District of California, saying it has sold software under the name Astra since 2021 and that OpenAI's AI model of the same name will confuse customers. It asks for an injunction and damages (news). The complaint relies on "reverse confusion": a larger company arrives later and, with its reach, makes the public think the smaller prior user is the imitator. The case is at the pleading stage and the court has decided nothing. What happens when a bigger company uses your brand name in China? It depends mainly on whether your mark is registered there, and for which goods.

Two very different starting points

• Your mark is registered in China: use of an identical or similar name on identical or similar goods can be pursued as trademark infringement.
• You only used the name first: China is a first-to-file system. Your options are narrower: stop the other side's registration, keep using within your existing scope, and, if the name has some influence, rely on unfair competition law.

Foreign brands are often in the second position in China because they registered at home but not there.

Registered: infringement, whichever way the confusion runs

Under Article 57 of the current Trademark Law, using a similar mark on identical goods, or an identical or similar mark on similar goods, without consent and in a way likely to cause confusion, infringes the registered mark.

Ordinary confusion means consumers think the small brand's goods come from the big one. Reverse confusion runs the other way: the public thinks the registered owner's goods come from, or are linked to, the larger later user. Chinese courts still ask whether the marks are similar, the goods similar and confusion likely, and take into account each side's reputation, manner of use and timing. A later user's fame is not a defence in itself. Outcomes vary a lot by case and turn on evidence.

What a registered owner can do:

1. Secure evidence of the other side's use, through notarised purchases or online evidence preservation, alongside your registration certificate, use evidence and sales figures.
2. Record actual confusion: customers asking whether you belong to the big company, search results taken over, distributors misled. Date each instance.
3. Send a warning letter or file a complaint with the market regulation authority; use on marketplaces can be reported through platform channels.
4. Sue for an injunction and damages; in urgent cases, apply for a pre-action injunction.

Unregistered: what is still possible

1. File now, after checking whether the other side has already applied. Large companies launching a new name usually file in several classes.
2. Block their registration: oppose during the publication period, or seek invalidation within five years of registration. Article 32 prohibits pre-emptively registering, by unfair means, a mark another party has already used with some influence. "Some influence" must be proved with evidence that predates their filing date. See trademark squatting in China.
3. Keep using within your original scope: under Article 59(3), if you used an identical or similar mark with some influence on the same or similar goods before the owner filed, the owner cannot stop that use within its original scope, though it may require a distinguishing mark. This protects existing use only and limits expansion.
4. Unfair competition: if your name already has some influence in China, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law's rules on confusing conduct may apply.

Every unregistered route requires proof of influence in China. Reputation abroad helps only as background.

What to do now

1. Register the core name in China, in the classes you use and plan to use, plus a Chinese-language version.
2. Keep dated use evidence in China: contracts, invoices, advertising, media coverage. The same evidence defends against non-use cancellation.
3. Watch new filings for identical or similar names and oppose during publication.
4. Search before you name, beyond registered marks: names in use in your industry, domains and app stores. See what a clearance search covers.

FAQ

Can a small company win against a large one? The evidence decides, not size. A registered mark with solid use evidence is a firm basis; without registration, you first have to prove influence in China.

Can the larger company be made to rebrand? If infringement is found, the court can order it to stop using the name. Parties also settle through purchase or coexistence agreements.

Will the 2027 revised law change this? The revised Trademark Law takes effect on 1 January 2027 and renumbers some articles. This guide cites the current law; check the new text once it applies.

J&C Intellectual Property Agency (JCIPO), founded in 2008, is a CNIPA-recorded trademark agency and a member of the China Trademark Association. We handle clearance searches, oppositions, invalidations and enforcement in China, see our trademark enforcement service. Patent filings are handled through an affiliated patent agency.