Protecting a Beauty Brand Against Counterfeits in China: Trademarks, NMPA Filings and Authorised Sellers

On 30 October the UK Intellectual Property Office published a guide for beauty salons, practitioners and retailers on how to avoid fake beauty products and report sellers (news). It is written for buyers: buy from trusted channels, check the seller, inspect packaging and batch details, and report fakes. Read the other way round, it is a checklist for brand owners, and the same logic applies in China, one of the world's largest beauty markets. This guide sets out what a foreign beauty brand should put in place in China so that genuine products are easy to verify and fakes are easy to act against. It is general information; a specific case needs professional advice.

Rights first: trademarks and a Chinese name

• Register in China before you sell: China is first-to-file, and your registrations abroad give you no rights there. Cosmetics fall mainly in class 3; beauty tools and devices may need classes 8, 21 and others. China divides each class into subclasses, so check the coverage carefully.
• Register a Chinese-character name: Chinese consumers and sellers will give your brand a Chinese name if you do not. Choose it, search it and register it yourself. See Choosing a Chinese Brand Name.
• Sub-brands and product lines: each name that appears on packaging needs its own search and filing.

Regulatory filings that also help against fakes

Under China's Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics, in force since 1 January 2021, imported cosmetics must be registered (special cosmetics) or notified (general cosmetics) with the National Medical Products Administration before they are sold in China, and a foreign registrant or notifier must appoint a domestic responsible person in China. These are regulatory requirements, not IP rights, but they create a public record of what your genuine products are, who is responsible for them and what their labels should say, which helps buyers, platforms and authorities tell genuine products from fakes. Products sold only through cross-border e-commerce retail imports generally fall outside this registration and notification regime, which makes the trademark and the authorised-seller list even more important.

Make genuine products easy to verify

1. Batch and traceability data: a clear batch code on every product, with records of production date and where each batch was shipped.
2. A published list of authorised sellers: name your authorised distributors and official stores on your website and on your official marketplace stores, in Chinese and English.
3. Consistent packaging: keep the Chinese label, ingredient list and warnings consistent, and announce packaging changes, so buyers do not mistake a new version for a fake.
4. Distribution contracts: distributors buy only from you or designated channels, share batch and sales records, report suspected fakes, and may not file your marks in their own name.

When fakes appear in China

• Marketplace takedowns: Chinese and cross-border platforms act on notices backed by a Chinese trademark registration. See Taking Down Counterfeits on Chinese and Cross-Border Marketplaces.
• Customs recordal: recording your trademark with China Customs lets officers stop counterfeit exports before they leave China. See China Customs IP Recordal.
• Trace the source: if listings keep coming back, follow the trail to the seller and factory, then choose administrative, civil, criminal or customs routes. See Counterfeits Keep Coming Back After Takedowns.
• Damages: under the current Trademark Law, where actual loss and profit cannot be established, courts can award statutory damages of up to RMB 5 million, and punitive damages of one to five times are available for wilful infringement in serious cases.
• Preserve evidence: test purchases, orders, payment records, seller details and screenshots; notarised purchases are common in Chinese proceedings.

Frequently asked questions

We only sell in China through cross-border e-commerce. Do we still need a Chinese trademark? Yes. Platform complaints, customs recordal and court actions in China all rest on a Chinese registration, and without one a local filer can register your name first.

Can our Chinese distributor be the domestic responsible person? The regulations allow a Chinese entity to take that role, often the importer or a specialist service provider. Whoever it is, keep the trademark in your own name and set out the relationship in a contract.

Does an NMPA filing protect our brand name? No. A registration or notification covers the product for regulatory purposes; it does not give you trademark rights. You still need the trademark registration.

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