The China National Intellectual Property Administration released on November 22 the Guidelines for Trademark Examination and Adjudication (《商标审查审理指南》) in place of the Standards for Trademark Examination and Adjudication (《商标审查及审理标准》), which became effective in 2017.

The Standards for Trademark Examination and Adjudication, governed by the Trademark Law of the PRC (《中华人民共和国商标法》) and the Regulations on the Implementation of the Trademark Law of the PRC (《中华人民共和国商标法实施条例》), was developed and promulgated as detailed and operable specifications for law enforcement agencies.

To reflect the amendments to the Trademark Law effective in November 1, 2019, the CNIPA published on June 11 the exposure draft of the amendment of the Standards for Trademark Examination and Adjudication to solicit public comments. The amended Standards is 700 pages in length as opposed to its current 194-page version. 

The amendment mainly covers 2 aspects:

1. Adding formality examination criteria by clarifying the general requirements for formality examination; providing procedural details of trademark registration, opposition, review and cancellation; stipulating key elements for class specifications and search for word and device marks; and detailing the operations of Madrid trademark registration for designating China.

2. Revising and improving the substantive examination criteria by adding a new chapter “Overview”; fine-tuning the examination guidelines based on Article 4 of the Trademarks Law on bad faith applications without intent to use and elaborating the applicable criteria for other legal provisions with more guiding examples provided.

The amendment of the Standards for Trademark Examination and Adjudication has been renamed as the Guidelines for Trademark Examination and Adjudication for final promulgation.

The full text of the Guidelines is available here.