Brand owners spend heavily on marketplace takedowns, then watch the same counterfeiters ship containers out of Shenzhen and Ningbo with nothing in the way. The gap is usually not budget. It is that nobody filed the one-page recordal that lets Chinese customs act without being asked.
What the recordal actually is
China's Regulations on Customs Protection of Intellectual Property Rights let a rights holder register its trademarks, patents and copyrights with the General Administration of Customs (GACC). Once recorded, the record sits in the customs database that every port uses for risk screening.
Two enforcement modes exist, and the difference is everything:
| Passive (application-based) | Active (recordal-based) | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | You spot a specific shipment and ask customs to hold it | Customs spots a suspect shipment and holds it on its own initiative |
| Requirement | No recordal needed | Recordal required |
| Guarantee | Posted per case, before detention | Posted after detention, on notice |
| Practical value | Low — you rarely know the container number | High — this is the whole reason to file |
Why it is worth an afternoon
- It closes the export door. Counterfeit goods made in China and sold abroad pass through Chinese ports. Domestic enforcement does not touch them; customs does.
- It creates a paper trail. Detentions generate official notices, photographs and seizure records — evidence that is far more persuasive in a later civil case or platform appeal than a screenshot.
- It deters the factory, not just the shipment. A factory whose export consignment gets held loses the goods and the freight, which changes the economics of taking the order.
- It supports platform enforcement. Chinese e-commerce platforms respond better to complaints backed by an enforcement history than to a first-time report.
What you need to qualify
- A registered trademark in China — a pending application is not enough. This is the most common blocker: brands that filed six months ago are not yet eligible;
- Or a granted patent, or a registered copyright;
- The registration must be current — no lapse, no pending cancellation;
- Applicant details matching the certificate exactly.
Foreign rights holders can file directly, but in practice use a Chinese agent because the system, the forms and the correspondence are in Chinese.
The process
- Prepare the file: registration certificate, applicant identity documents, the goods covered, and images of genuine and typical counterfeit packaging where available;
- File online with GACC. The application is short: rights holder, registration number, goods, and contact details for detention notices;
- GACC examines — typically about a month — and either approves or asks for corrections;
- Recordal is published in the customs database and becomes visible to every port;
- Maintain it: update on renewal, on assignment, and on any change of name or address. A recordal tied to a lapsed registration is worse than none, because it produces false negatives.
What happens when customs detains a shipment
This is the part brand owners are least prepared for, and it is where recordals fail in practice:
- Customs notifies the rights holder — through the contact details on the recordal. An unmonitored mailbox loses cases;
- You must confirm within a short window whether the goods infringe, and provide a guarantee, generally calculated against the value of the goods;
- If you confirm, customs proceeds to investigation and possible confiscation, fine and destruction;
- If you do nothing, the goods are released. The recordal did its job for three days and then stopped.
What it does not do
- It does not stop domestic manufacturing or domestic online sales — those need platform complaints, market regulator actions or litigation;
- It does not stop shipments that misdescribe the goods or route through free trade zones with paperwork that does not mention your mark;
- It does not replace a Chinese registration — it depends on one;
- It does not cover goods that are merely similar in a way a customs officer cannot judge at the border. Customs acts on clear counterfeits, not on arguable similarity.
Where it fits in a China enforcement stack
A coherent programme for a mid-size brand looks like this, in order of cost-effectiveness:
- Register the English and Chinese marks in the core classes plus class 35;
- Record with customs — free, one month;
- Enrol in platform brand protection — Amazon, Alibaba, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Douyin each have a channel;
- Monitor new trademark filings during the three-month publication window, when opposition is still cheap;
- Escalate to administrative complaints or civil litigation for repeat offenders, using the customs and platform records as evidence.
Steps one and two together cost less than a single month of a Western law firm's retainer, and they cover the majority of realistic infringement scenarios. If your registration has issued and you have not filed the recordal, that is the fastest available win.
Send us the registration number and we will check eligibility, prepare the filing and set up the detention response path in the same week.
Not sure where your brand stands in China?
Send us your mark and the classes you care about. We run a free CNIPA availability check and come back within 48 hours with a risk rating, the closest citations, and a fixed fee.