“Someone Is Registering Your Brand in China”: How to Check a Warning Email Before You Act

Foreign brand owners regularly receive emails saying that a Chinese company is about to register their brand: as a .cn domain, as "internet keywords", or as a trademark. Small business owners ask about them in public forums all the time, usually with the same question: is this a scam or a real risk? Some of these emails are sales pitches dressed up as warnings. Others point to a real trademark application with a real deadline. This guide shows how to tell the difference yourself, using public databases, before you reply, pay or ignore it. It is general information; the current rules of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) apply.

Two kinds of email

• Domain name "registration notices": a "domain registration service" in Shanghai, Hong Kong or elsewhere says a company has applied for your name as .cn, .com.cn or .asia domains and "internet keywords", and asks you to confirm within a few days. Follow-up emails may come from the supposed applicant. The aim is usually to sell you the domains. A domain name or a "keyword" is not a trademark, and someone else registering a .cn domain does not give them trademark rights in China.
• Trademark publication notices: a firm writes that a mark similar to yours has been preliminarily approved in China and that the opposition deadline is on a stated date. These can be genuine. Firms monitor the CNIPA Trademark Gazette and contact owners to offer opposition work. The application and the deadline may well be real, even if the email is unsolicited.

A third, related type is an invoice for "publishing" or "registering" your trademark in a private register. Official offices do not send such invoices; WIPO and several national offices publish warnings about them. Pay only fee notices you can trace to an application you or your agent filed.

How to check a trademark claim yourself

1. Get the application number. A genuine notice can give you the number, the applicant's name and the class. If the sender cannot or will not, treat the email as a sales pitch.
2. Look it up. The WIPO Global Brand Database includes Chinese trademark data and has an English interface, which makes it a good first check. Confirm the details in CNIPA's own trademark search (sbj.cnipa.gov.cn).
3. Read the record. Note the applicant, the goods and services, the status and the publication date. In China, anyone entitled to oppose has three months from the publication of the preliminary approval (Trademark Law, Article 33).
4. Search your brand in Chinese as well. Chinese-character versions and transliterations are the forms most often filed by others. See Choosing a Chinese Brand Name.
5. Allow for database delays. Very recent filings take time to appear. A clean result is not final for applications filed in the last few weeks.

CNIPA does not write to brand owners about other people's applications. An email claiming to be a warning from "the Chinese trademark office" is not an official notice.

If the application is real

• Decide whether it matters. Does it cover goods you sell, plan to sell, or have made in China? A registration in someone else's name can cause problems even if you only manufacture there, as explained in Eight Things Foreign Companies Must Know Before Filing in China.
• Do not assume bad faith. A similar application may come from an unrelated business that chose a similar name independently. Check who the applicant is and what else it has filed.
• Know your options. Prior right holders and interested parties can oppose within the three-month window; anyone can oppose on absolute grounds, such as a bad-faith filing without intent to use. After registration there are invalidation and non-use cancellation. See Trademark Squatting in China: Opposition, Invalidation and Non-Use Cancellation.
• Choose your own adviser. You do not have to instruct the firm that emailed you. Put the deadline in your calendar first, then decide.
• File your own application. Whatever happens with the opposition, protect the Latin and Chinese forms of your brand in the classes you need, after a clearance search.

Domain, company name and trademark are three different things

• Domain names are registered through registrars under the rules of CNNIC, China's domain registry. Disputes go through a domain dispute procedure, not the trademark office.
• Company names are registered with local market regulators when a company is formed. A Chinese company with a name like yours is not the same as a trademark registration.
• Trademarks are registered with CNIPA for specific goods and services. Only a trademark registration gives exclusive rights to use the mark on those goods in China.

Quick checklist

1. Do not click links or open attachments. Do not pay.
2. Look up the sender independently, not through the contact details in the email.
3. Ask for the application number and check it in the WIPO Global Brand Database and CNIPA's search.
4. Domain or "keyword" offers only: usually safe to ignore.
5. Real trademark application that covers your goods: note the opposition deadline and get advice before it passes.

Frequently asked questions

Should I reply to say I do not authorise the registration? There is no need. Your authorisation is not required for someone else to register a domain, and a reply only confirms that the address is read.

I do not sell in China. Should I care about a Chinese trademark application? If your products are made in China, yes. A registration in someone else's name can be used against shipments made for you, and in some cases goods can be held at Chinese customs. If you neither sell nor manufacture there, the practical risk is lower, but a later entry into China becomes harder.

The email gave an opposition deadline that has already passed. Is it too late? Not necessarily. After registration, invalidation is still possible; the time limits depend on the grounds.

J&C Intellectual Property Agency, founded in 2008, is a CNIPA-recorded trademark agency and a member of the China Trademark Association. We run trademark searches and handle oppositions in China for foreign brands; see our trademark search service.