Ashley Zhao
Chinese courts see upsurge in criminal IP litigation
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on June 16, 2025
On 21 April 2025 the Supreme People’s Court released an annual report entitled “The Status of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts (2024)” (“中国法院知识产权司法保护状况(2024年)”), in both Chinese and English. This update will highlight some of the IP and trademark trends across China found in the report, including an increase in criminal cases and in cases involving...
Tags: china, damages, Litigation
China’s First AI-Generated Picture Copyright Infringement Case
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on April 8, 2025
In November 2023, the Beijing Internet Court issued a first-instance judgment in China’s first “AI-generated picture copyright infringement case”, clarifying that the AI-generated picture involved in the case has the quality of “originality”, reflecting the original intellectual input of human beings, and thus should be recognised as a work and protected by copyright law. The...
Increasing Burden of Proof for Trademark Applicants in China
By Ashley Zhao | Posted on March 19, 2025
Based on the recent official notices issued by the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) about non-use cancellation cases, applicants are now required to submit more stringent evidence to prove that the target trademark has not been used, including: Basic information about the trademark registrant, including business scope, operational status, and trademark registration details. Evidence...
Reducing the burden – China issues rules on suspending trademark review cases
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on July 13, 2023
On June 13, 2023, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued an Interpretation on the Rules for Suspension of Review Cases《评审案件中止情形规范》解读. The Rules will improve several aspects of trademark practice in China for brand owners as they aim to decrease repeated trademark filings and legal proceedings. The Rules detail multiple situations where a suspension...
Key Takeaways: CNIPA notice on malicious trademark registrations
By Ashley Zhao | Posted on June 8, 2022
On 29 March 2022 the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the “Notice on Continuing to Severely Crack Down on the Malicious Registration of Trademarks”. The notice highlights the importance of trademark registration management to promote the development of intellectual property and create a favourable environment for innovation and business. It covers eight topics,...
Tags: CNIPA, registration, trademarks
China trials fast-track examination for trademark applications
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on March 9, 2022
On 14 January 2022 the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released the Measures for Fast-track Examination of Trademark Registration Applications (for Trial Implementation). The measures became effective on the same day and apply to four specific categories of trademark applications that will be eligible for fast-track procedures. If all conditions are met and fast-track examination...
Tags: china, trademarks
China issues Opinions on Judging Trademark Violations
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on January 28, 2022
The National Intellectual Property Administration of China (CNIPA) issued the Standard for Judging General Trademark Violations (Standard) on December 13, 2021. It entered into force on January 1, 2022. Background In China, the Administration for Market Regulation (AMR) at the state, provincial, municipal and county levels (including all branches) are the enforcement authority tasked with administering and...
Tags: china, Standard, Trademark, Violations
China Tackles Bad-faith Trademark Registrations
By Ai-Leen Lim, Ashley Zhao | Posted on June 4, 2019
The China National Intellectual Property Administration has published Draft Regulations in an effort to tackle bad-faith trademark applications. In this article, we take a closer look at the (i) Draft Regulations for Regulating the Application for the Registration of Trademarks, (ii) revisions to the PRC Trademark Law (wef November 1, 2019) and (iii) recently issued...
Tags: AIPLA, Bad faith, Beijing Court, china, Guidelines, INTA, regulations, trademark law, trademarks
Recent contributors
Partner, European Patent Attorney
Senior Associate, Attorney at Law
Partner, Attorney at Law, Group Vice President
Partner, Attorney at Law, Business Area Manager
Senior Counsel, European Patent Attorney
