PRC Trademark Law newly amended; more protection for Taiwanese companies troubled by registration in bad faith

Bad faith registration of a trademark is keenly felt by many Taiwanese businesses.  Even the world-renowned magazine, The Economist, has suffered losses therefrom and lost its legal battle.  In the face of increasingly more bad faith registration cases, the new Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, though holds firm to the registration principle and first-to-file principle, slightly adjusted its principle of good faith, forbidding a trademark application that will adversely impact other's pre-existing rights or using any unlawful means to apply for registration of a trademark that has been used by another and has a certain influence. 

 

Though the five-year prescription on filing a request to invalidate a famous trademark being registered in bad faith has been lifted, no famous foreign trademarks have been deemed a "famous mark" so far.  That is to say, the new law and the protection it offers apply only to trademarks that have been registered in the PRC.

 

Source:Commercial Times 08/29/2002

Translated by Jem Chung