Bad faith is certainly one of the most debated topics in reference to trademarks in China. Today we are going to discuss on Article 4 (Malicious and not for the purpose of use) of the Chinese Trademark Law (TML) after the recent change in November 2019.

In a recent decision in relation to a rejection appeal for TM No.30342933 “” (You Ha in Chinese) [Shang Ping Zi [2019] No.0000117640], the CNIPA said: “In addition to the applied for trademark, a large number of applications have been submitted in a short period of time, which exceeds the needs of normal business activities, lacks real intention to use, and disrupts the normal order of trademark registration. Thus it violates Art. 4 of TML”.

Also, in the rejection appeal decision on trademark No.29282242 “” (Fa Mu Da Ren in Chinese), [Shang Ping Zi [2019]No.0000162198], the CNIPA applied Art. 4 and said: “In addition to the applied for trademark, the applicant applied for more than 210 trademarks in Class 28 toys. A large number of trademarks are exactly the same as the game names. Their behaviour may cause damage to other people’s prior rights and obviously exceeds normal production and operation needs. They have the improper intention of hoarding trademarks.”

Source: https://www.managingip.com/article/b1l3x5dzq79tq8/how-does-chinese-trademark-law-deal-with-bad-faith