If you want to protect your brand in China, you file a trademark application in China now, before someone else does it for you. If you want to stop counterfeit goods from leaving China, you register your China trademark again with Chinese Customs.
China Customs recently temporarily suspended all intellectual property registration fees in an effort to get more companies to use its IP registration service. In other words, registering your trademark or your patent or your copyright with China customs is now free. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero. But this is for a limited time only, and nobody (except maybe China Customs itself) knows for how long these free registrations will last.
Registering your intellectual property with China Customs is actually quite easy, but if your IP is held by a non-Chinese company, you will need a PRC agent to file for your registration.
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China Customs requires the following information for its IP registrations:
- Full name and registered address of the IP owner;
- Contact information for the person China Customs should contact upon discovery of a product it believes to be counterfeit, including a name, department, address, mobile number, landline number, fax number, and email address; and
- A “business license” that proves to China Customs you exist and you are a legitimate business. This typically is a Certificate of Incorporation or a Certificate of Good Standing, but the appropriate document can vary with the country and sometimes even with the state within the United States. The actual proof required also can vary with the China Customs location and even the particular officer within the location.
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When my firm’s China lawyers do customs filings, we provide China Customs with Chinese translations of all documents.
China Customs sometimes does not accept black and white PDF versions of documents, but our explanation of how our submissions nonetheless qualify as originals in their home country usually gets them through; when that does not work, we secure certified copies bearing the seal of the state or country. Again, what is actually required tends to vary with the China Customs location.
The documents we choose to provide initially to China Customs depends on our client’s timing and cost issues. Our China attorneys also provide China Customs with our own identity document, along with contact information listing our China lawyers as designated points of contact. Since we are not the actual IP owner, we also must provide China Customs with a specific Power of Attorney form signed by the IP owner authorizing our attorneys to handle filings on the IP owner’s behalf.
We next submit the relevant IP information, which typically consists of the following:
- The IP owner’s name;
- The type of registration (domestic or WIPO). Domestic registrations are generally easier to file with China Customs and they tend to work better as well. For more on why this is the case, check out China Trademarks: What’s Madrid Got to do With It?;
- The trademark or patent or copyright registration number, and the time period during which the IP registration is effective;
- A certificate of the IP registration and a photo of the client’s mark or product. Note that even for word marks, a typed copy of the words is not sufficient — China customs requires a photograph of the word mark;
- A list of products covered by each registration; and
- For each product, the name of the product, a brief description of the product (in Chinese), and a photo clearly showing the product. If our client modifies its product(s), it is relatively easy for us to provide China Customs with updated product information.
It is also a good idea to provide China Customs with a list of any entities authorized to use the IP in addition to the actual IP owner, along with the date on which that authorization terminates.
IP registrations with China Customs are valid for 10 years but may be renewed for additional 10-year periods.
Registering your IP with China Customs has always made economic sense, but considering that it’s free right now, you should do it as soon as possible to make the most of these IP protection benefits.
Dan Harris is a founding member of Harris Moure, an international law firm with lawyers in Seattle, Chicago, Beijing, and Qingdao. He is also a co-editor of the China Law Blog. You can reach him by email at [email protected].