How to register a trademark in China as a foreign company

Most overseas founders reach us with the same two assumptions: that registering in China requires a local entity, and that it takes years. Both are wrong. China is one of the faster major jurisdictions to register in, and ownership is open to any foreign applicant.

What actually costs people money is not the filing itself. It is filing late, filing in the wrong class, or filing only the English wordmark and discovering two years later that the Chinese trading name everyone uses in stores belongs to somebody else.

The short answer

• Any foreign company or individual can own a Chinese trademark. No subsidiary, no local shareholder, no resident director.
• You must file through a Chinese-registered trademark agency. CNIPA does not deal directly with applicants based outside China.
• China is first-to-file. Whoever files first owns the mark, regardless of who used it first. Use only helps in narrow, expensive edge cases.
• One application covers one class. A mark used across three classes needs three applications.
• Budget three to four months and RMB 270 per class in official fees for a smooth single-class filing.

Can a foreign company own a Chinese trademark?

Yes. Article 17 of the Chinese Trademark Law allows foreign individuals and enterprises to apply, and Article 18 requires them to appoint a trademark agency established in China. That requirement is procedural, not a restriction on ownership — the registration sits in your company's name, and you control it directly.

What CNIPA needs from you is modest:

• A copy of your certificate of incorporation, or an extract from the companies register, showing your full legal name and address exactly as they should appear on the certificate;
• A Chinese translation of that document, prepared by the agency;
• If your name or address is not in Latin script, a transliteration.

Some agencies will ask for notarisation or an apostille of the incorporation documents. Since China joined the Apostille Convention in November 2023, an apostille from your home authority is normally accepted where one is required at all. For a routine filing, a clear copy is usually enough.

China is first-to-file, not first-to-use

This is the single fact that decides most China brand disputes. The application date, not the first sale date, determines who owns the mark. A competitor, a distributor, a factory or a professional squatter who files before you will generally hold the registration, and you will be the one arguing.

Chinese law does provide routes for a genuine prior user — an unregistered well-known mark under Article 13, or prior use that creates a protectable interest under Article 32 — but these are evidentiary fights, they cost multiples of a filing, and they take a year or more. Filing first is dramatically cheaper than proving you were first.

Three routes to a Chinese registration

We cover the trade-offs in detail in Madrid versus direct filing. The short version: direct filing gives you the most control over the goods list, which matters more in China than in most jurisdictions because examination is strict about how items are worded.

Choosing classes — and why class 35 keeps coming up

China uses the Nice classification with its own sub-class system, and the Similar Goods and Services Classification Table decides whether two marks collide. Two marks in the same class but different sub-classes may coexist; two marks in different classes can still be cited against each other if the goods are considered similar.

For a typical consumer brand, the core filing looks like this:

• Your product class — for example 25 for apparel, 3 for cosmetics, 9 for electronics, 30 for food.
• Class 35 — retail and advertising services. In China this is the class that covers "store services", and it is what you rely on when a shopfront or an online store uses your mark as a trading name. Many brand owners skip it and regret it.
• Class 42 or 41 — if you license technology or run training and content.
• The Chinese-character version of your mark, filed as a separate application.

Defensive filings are cheap insurance in China. Adding two or three adjacent classes at RMB 270 each is a rounding error next to the cost of an invalidation action later.

What we need from you

1. Applicant name and address, exactly as on the incorporation document;
2. A copy of that document;
3. The mark: a black-and-white or colour image, at least 400 × 400 px, plus the wordmark in plain text if it is a logo;
4. The classes and the specific goods or services you sell under the mark;
5. Priority details, if you are claiming a six-month Paris priority;
6. A signed power of attorney — we prepare it, you print, sign and scan.

No specimen of use, no declaration, no proof of sales. This is the point where US applicants in particular expect a fight and there isn't one.

Timeline and official fees

Official fee: RMB 270 per class for an online filing covering up to ten items, plus RMB 27 per additional item. Renewal is RMB 500 per class for ten more years, with a six-month grace period at a surcharge.

There is no purchasable acceleration. Anyone offering to "speed up" a Chinese examination is either describing the normal queue or selling you nothing.

Why applications get refused

Around half of the refusals we handle are relative — an earlier mark in the way. The rest split between absolute grounds and formal problems:

• Similarity to an earlier mark in the same or a similar sub-class. The examiner compares visual, phonetic and conceptual similarity, and for a foreign word mark the Chinese transliteration is part of that comparison.
• Lack of distinctiveness — descriptive terms, generic product names, slogans that simply describe a feature.
• Absolute prohibitions — marks contrary to public order or good morals, or that mislead as to origin or quality.
• Non-standard goods wording — items outside the accepted list get an office action asking you to amend.
• Opposition — a third party objects during the three-month publication window.

A refusal is not the end. You have fifteen days from receipt to request review by the CNIPA review board, and partial refusals can be handled by dividing the application, abandoning the blocked items and keeping the rest. We normally advise on the strategy within a week of the notice, because the clock is short and the fee for review is real money.

After registration: keep it alive

A Chinese registration lasts ten years and is renewable indefinitely, but it can be taken away for not being used. Under Article 49, anyone can apply to cancel a mark that has not been used for three consecutive years — the revocation for non-use route that squatters use against brands, and that brands use against squatters.

So keep the file:

• Invoices and contracts bearing the mark, with dates;
• Screenshots of product pages, marketplace listings and store fronts;
• Advertising contracts, media placements, influencer agreements;
• Trade show photographs with visible dates and signage;
• Customs declarations for exported goods bearing the mark.

Also keep your registered name and address current. A change of company name or a move that is never recorded at CNIPA creates a mismatch that complicates renewals, assignments and enforcement — and it is far cheaper to fix while you still have the original documents.

Frequently asked

Can I register in China without ever selling there?

Yes. There is no use requirement to file or to maintain a registration in the first years, which is exactly why filing early is possible — and why squatters can sit on marks they have never used.

Is one application enough for multiple classes?

No. China follows a one-mark-one-class system: each class needs its own application and its own official fee.

Does my English mark protect the Chinese name customers use?

Generally no. Protection follows the sign as registered. If Chinese consumers and staff call your brand something else, that name is unprotected unless you register it — see our note on Chinese-character filings.

What if someone already filed my mark?

You have options: opposition if it is still in the publication window, invalidation or non-use cancellation afterwards, or a negotiated assignment. This guide sets out which one fits.

Can I file the Chinese translation later?

You can, but later filings lose the earlier date and give squatters a window. Filing the English and Chinese versions together on day one is the cheaper sequence.

Next step

Send us the mark, your product description and the countries you care about. We will run a free CNIPA search, tell you which classes you actually need, and quote a fixed fee — usually within 48 hours, in English, with no obligation to proceed.