Zuming, Li --- "Trademarks" [2011] ELECD 840; in Kariyawasam, Rohan (ed), "Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Chinese Intellectual Property and Technology Laws

Editor(s): Kariyawasam, Rohan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800082

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Trademarks

Author(s): Zuming, Li

Number of pages: 32

Extract:

3. Trademarks
Li Zuming1

3.1. INTRODUCTION ­ WHAT ARE TRADEMARKS?

A trademark is a commercial mark that distinguishes a provider of com-
modities or services from others. Trademarks include registered trade-
marks and unregistered trademarks. Registered trademarks are those that
have been approved and registered by the Trademark Office (TMO) of
the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).
Trademark registrants have exclusive use of their trademarks and are
protected by Chinese law. Unregistered trademarks are those commercial
marks that have not been approved and registered by the Trademark
Office, but are used as trademarks.2
In China, an application for trademark registration may be filed
for any visible mark including a word, sign, letter, number, 3D (three-
dimensional) mark, color combination, or a combination of the elements
mentioned above, that distinguish the commodities of the natural person,
legal person or other organization from those of others. A sound, smell or
an animation cannot compose a registered trademark.3
According to the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China of
22 February 1993 (as amended) to use a registered trademark, the trade-
mark registrant must use `' (meaning a registered trademark)
or a sign indicating the trademark is registered (the registration signs

1 Associate Professor in Law at the China University of Political Science and

Law and Associate Director of the Institute of Intellectual Property Law. I would
like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Robert Yeargin for his valuable
assistance with the English version of this ...