Protecting IP in China under Foreign-Related Dispute Rules

What types of intellectual property are protected in China?

China protects trademarks, patents, copyright, trade secrets, and several related rights under dedicated statutes and regulations. Foreign companies can own and enforce these rights in their own name, provided they comply with Chinese registration and procedural rules.

• Main IP types and legal bases

Key structural features of China IP protection

• First-to-file system: The first applicant to file a trademark or patent in China normally wins, regardless of prior use elsewhere.
• National coverage: Registrations at CNIPA cover the whole of mainland China; Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan have separate systems.
• Language: Applications, evidence, and court filings must be in Chinese. Foreign companies must use a qualified local agent for most procedures.
• Specialized adjudication: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and many large cities have specialist IP courts or IP tribunals, plus the Supreme People's Court IP tribunal for appeals.

How do you protect trademarks and brands in China?

You protect brands in China by registering trademarks with CNIPA as early as possible, in both Latin and Chinese character forms, and then actively enforcing them through administrative, civil, and customs channels. Without a China registration, your ability to stop counterfeits and squatters is sharply limited.

Core trademark strategy for foreign businesses

• Register early: File in China before public launch, before naming factories, and before appointing distributors. Watch for squatters.
• Secure Chinese-language marks: Register a chosen Chinese brand name (transliteration or translation) and variations; if you do not, others may register and control them.
• Cover relevant classes: Use the Nice Classification plus China's sub-classes. Carefully select classes and sub-classes that reflect current and planned products and services.
• Prevent non-use cancellation: Use your marks in China or maintain preparatory use evidence, because marks can be cancelled for non-use for 3 consecutive years.

Trademark registration process and timeline

1. Clearance search: Your China agent searches CNIPA records (and major platforms) for identical or similar marks in relevant classes.
2. Application filing: File in Chinese with owner details, clear goods/services description, and a representation of the mark.
3. Formal examination: CNIPA checks formalities and basic distinctiveness.
4. Substantive examination: CNIPA reviews conflicts with prior marks and absolute grounds.
5. Publication and opposition: If preliminarily approved, the mark is published for opposition.
6. Registration certificate: If no valid opposition, CNIPA issues a certificate. You may then mark products with the ® symbol in China.

Handling squatters and bad faith filings

• Oppose suspicious filings: Monitor the CNIPA gazette and online tools and file oppositions against bad faith applications, especially by distributors, agents, or factories.
• Invalidation actions: After registration, file invalidation petitions against bad faith registrations, often arguing bad faith and prior use or reputation.
• Leverage well-known mark status: In serious cases, seek recognition as a well-known trademark to expand protection across classes.

Commercial measures

• Contractual controls: Distributor and OEM contracts should ban trademark filings, clearly assign any developed marks to you, and require cooperation with enforcement.
• Licensing: Trademark licenses should be in writing and ideally recorded with CNIPA to support tax and royalty remittance, and to show chain of title.

How do you protect patents and technology in China?

You protect technology in China by filing patent applications with CNIPA for core inventions, utility models, and designs, then integrating those rights with contracts and trade secret measures. Patents are critical for high-value tech, manufacturing processes, hardware, and innovative product designs.

Patent options and strategy

• Invention patents: For substantive technical innovations in products or processes, with 20-year term and substantive examination.
• Utility models: For incremental structural improvements with faster grant (often under 12 months) and 10-year term; useful for quick enforcement, especially in manufacturing sectors.
• Design patents: For product appearance; China grants strong design rights and is increasingly strict about design copying.
• Combination approach: File both invention and utility model for the same subject where appropriate to get early enforceable rights while the invention patent is under examination.

China patent filing routes

1. Direct CNIPA filing: For inventions first made outside China or where China is a key market or manufacturing base.
2. PCT national phase: For international applications, enter the China national phase within 30 months of the priority date (earlier is often better for enforcement plans).
3. Priority claims: File in China within 12 months (invention/UM) or 6 months (design) of your first filing to claim priority.

Enforcing patents in China

• Civil litigation in IP courts: Main route for serious disputes, seeking injunctions and damages; technical investigators often assist judges.
• Administrative enforcement: Local IP authorities can handle simpler patent disputes (especially counterfeits) by ordering cessation, but they do not award damages.
• Customs: Patent recordals at Customs can help intercept infringing exports, although practical enforcement is more common for trademarks and designs.
• Validity challenges: Accused infringers often attack the patent at CNIPA; coordinate infringement and validity strategies from the start.

Technology and manufacturing controls

• OEM and JV contracts: Include clear IP ownership clauses, invention assignment, and restrictions on post-termination use of tooling and technology.
• Employee inventions: Ensure local employment contracts and internal policies correctly assign employee inventions to the company and provide statutory rewards.
• Parallel trade and tooling: Use serial numbers, production controls, and inspection rights to prevent unauthorized overruns and grey exports.

How is copyright and software protected in China?

Copyright in China arises automatically when a work is created, and software and other works get protection without registration. In practice, voluntary registration and well-drafted contracts make enforcement and monetization far easier for foreign companies.

Scope of copyright protection

• Protected works: Software, source code, databases with originality, websites, documentation, marketing content, photos, videos, music, and other creative works.
• No formal registration needed: Copyright exists automatically once the work is created and fixed, but registration provides strong prima facie evidence in court.
• Software registration: Software copyright registration with the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) is common for core products and can support enforcement and tax incentives.

Commercial and enforcement practices

• Licensing and distribution: Local licenses should address territory (China, including or excluding Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan), language versions, and whether source code is provided.
• SaaS and online services: Contracts should govern data ownership, API usage, and user-generated content, and align with China's data and cybersecurity rules.
• Platform enforcement: Use copyright takedown procedures on Chinese e-commerce and app platforms (Alibaba, JD, Douyin, WeChat, etc.) backed by registration certificates and logs.

Software and code protection

• Layered approach: Combine software copyright with patents (for technical solutions and algorithms where patentable) and trade secret controls for key know-how.
• Code access controls: Limit local access to source code, use code escrow cautiously, and track repositories and contributions with clear IP assignment clauses.
• Audit rights: Include audit and monitoring provisions in reseller, integrator, and customization agreements to detect unauthorized copies and deployments.

How are trade secrets and confidential business information protected in China?

China protects trade secrets under the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, but you must prove confidentiality measures, value, and misappropriation. Strong contracts, internal controls, and evidence preparation are essential for successful trade secret claims.

What qualifies as a trade secret in China

• Scope: Technical information (formulas, processes, designs, source code) and business information (customer lists, pricing, strategies, supplier data) that is not publicly known.
• Value: The information must have commercial value because it is secret.
• Confidentiality measures: The owner must have taken reasonable measures to keep the information secret.

Practical protection measures

• Written NDAs: Use Chinese and bilingual NDAs with employees, contractors, suppliers, and partners, with PRC law and a China forum for disputes where possible.
• Internal policies: Classify information, restrict access on a need-to-know basis, and log access to critical repositories and systems.
• Onboarding and exit processes: Train new hires, collect acknowledgments, and at exit, remind employees of ongoing confidentiality obligations and recover company devices.
• Technical controls: Use encryption, access logs, VPN restrictions, and DLP tools where feasible, especially in R&D centers and factories in China.

Enforcement of trade secrets

• Civil claims: Sue for misappropriation in IP-specialized courts, seeking injunctions and damages; evidence of access and suspicious similarity is key.
• Administrative actions: Local AMR authorities can investigate serious misappropriation and impose fines.
• Criminal liability: Particularly egregious or large-scale theft of trade secrets can lead to criminal prosecution, especially where state or major commercial interests are harmed.

How do IP enforcement and dispute resolution work in China?

IP enforcement in China combines administrative raids, civil litigation, criminal actions, and Customs measures, often used in parallel. For most foreign companies, an effective strategy starts with quick administrative actions and platform takedowns, backed by the option of strategic civil suits in specialist IP courts.

Main enforcement routes

Key institutions

• CNIPA: Handles registrations and patent/trademark validity proceedings.
• Specialized IP courts and tribunals: In major cities and provinces, handle most civil and administrative IP disputes.
• AMR (Administration for Market Regulation): Local market supervision bureaus conduct raids against counterfeiters and handle unfair competition matters.
• Public Security Bureau and prosecutors: Handle criminal IP cases.
• Customs (GACC and local customs): Intercept infringing goods at borders.

Damages and injunctions

• Damages calculation: Based on rights holder's loss, infringer's profits, reasonable royalties, or statutory damages where actual loss is hard to prove.
• Punitive damages: For malicious and serious infringement, courts can award punitive damages within statutory ranges.
• Behavioral injunctions: Courts frequently grant injunctions to stop production and sale of infringing goods, often coupled with destruction of infringing inventory.

Evidence and procedure (pre-2025 baseline)

• Burden of proof: Plaintiff must prove ownership, infringement, and damages, but courts may shift the burden on specific issues (such as profits) to the defendant.
• Evidence preservation: Ex parte preservation orders are available to secure evidence from factories, warehouses, and platforms, especially in counterfeiting and trade secret cases.
• Notarized purchase: Notarized test purchases and notarized online evidence are standard practice for future litigation and administrative actions.

How do the May 2025 reforms change IP disputes involving foreign companies?

The May 2025 reforms strengthen the position of foreign IP owners in Chinese disputes by streamlining evidence collection, formalizing the use of technical investigators, and creating faster channels to block infringing exports through administrative coordination. Any foreign brand facing Chinese-based counterfeiters or complex tech disputes should factor these changes into its litigation and enforcement strategy.

Improved evidence collection rules for foreign litigants

• Court-assisted evidence collection: Courts have broader powers to order Chinese defendants and relevant third parties (such as logistics providers and platforms) to produce sales records, financial data, and technical documentation.
• More efficient cross-border evidence use: The reforms aim to make it easier for foreign plaintiffs to submit overseas evidence, with clearer rules on translation, authentication, and timing, reducing procedural challenges often used by defendants.
• Enhanced evidence preservation: Standards for pre-suit and in-suit evidence preservation are more explicit, which helps foreign companies quickly secure on-the-ground evidence before infringers can destroy or move it.
• Data and digital records: Courts place greater emphasis on digital evidence from e-commerce platforms, payment providers, and logistics services, which is vital in online counterfeiting cases.

The role of technical investigators in complex patent and software cases

• Who they are: Technical investigators are court-appointed experts, usually with engineering or scientific backgrounds, who assist judges in understanding complex technologies.
• Expanded and clarified role (post-2025): The reforms formalize their participation in highly technical disputes, especially involving software, telecommunications, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and standards-related patents.
• How they affect your case:
  • They help interpret claim language and technical documents, which can significantly influence infringement and validity findings.
  • Their informal views often carry weight with the judicial panel, so clear, technically accurate submissions are critical.
  • Parties may have more structured opportunities to respond to or comment on technical investigators' views, making early engagement on technical issues essential.
• Practical steps for foreign companies:
  • Prepare bilingual technical claim charts and tutorials tailored to a non-specialist audience but robust enough to stand up under expert scrutiny.
  • Align your own expert reports and experiments with how technical investigators are likely to analyze the technology.

Impact on foreign brands fighting counterfeits

• Easier proof of scale and intent: With stronger evidence collection tools, foreign plaintiffs are better able to obtain sales volumes, profit data, and distribution networks of counterfeiters, supporting higher damages and punitive damages claims.
• Better access to platform and logistics data: Coordinated rules help rights holders trace counterfeit supply chains from factories to export channels more effectively.
• More predictable procedures: Clearer rules on evidence reduce procedural disputes that previously prolonged cases, which is attractive for foreign companies weighing the cost-benefit of suing in China.

How can you use Chinese administrative and customs tools to block infringing exports?

You can use Chinese administrative and customs tools by recording your IP rights with Customs, working with AMR and other regulators at manufacturing hubs, and leveraging new coordinated channels that target infringing exports. For foreign brands, these mechanisms often deliver quick wins against exporters of counterfeits without immediately resorting to full-scale civil litigation.

Customs recordal and border enforcement

1. Record your IP rights:
   • Record CNIPA-registered trademarks, patents (especially designs), and copyrights with the General Administration of Customs (GACC).
   • Provide product photos, genuine and infringing samples (if available), packaging details, and known exporter information.
2. Monitor and cooperate:
   • Customs uses the recordal database and risk profiling to flag suspicious shipments.
   • When Customs detects potential infringement, you must respond quickly to confirm and furnish evidence, often within tight deadlines.
3. Seizure and follow-up:
   • If you confirm infringement, Customs can seize and destroy goods, and may transfer serious cases to administrative or criminal authorities.
   • Use seizure records to support follow-up civil or criminal actions against the exporter.

New administrative channels for infringing exports (post-2025)

• Coordinated enforcement: The May 2025 framework strengthens coordination between Customs, AMR, and other agencies to focus on export-oriented infringement, especially in key manufacturing and logistics hubs.
• Targeted campaigns: Rights holders can provide intelligence (such as factory locations, online store data, logistics patterns) to trigger joint campaigns against exporters of counterfeits.
• Streamlined complaints: Standardized complaint formats and digital portals reduce friction for foreign right holders who previously had to navigate fragmented local procedures.
• Greater impact on supply chains: Combined administrative and customs actions can shut down both production and export channels, sending a stronger deterrent signal to counterfeiters.

Leveraging platforms and cross-border e-commerce

• Record and verify IP with major platforms: Use brand protection programs on major Chinese marketplaces and cross-border platforms to speed up takedowns and data sharing.
• Link online data to offline enforcement: Use seller identities, warehouse data, and shipping records from platforms to identify factories and logistics providers for AMR and Customs actions.
• Align with export regulations: Where infringing exports implicate safety, consumer protection, or product standards, align IP complaints with those regulatory concerns to gain stronger administrative traction.

When should you hire a China IP lawyer or specialist?

You should hire a China IP lawyer or specialist when you plan to enter the Chinese market, manufacture in China, license technology or brands, or when you see any sign of counterfeits or local filings by others. Early professional input usually costs less than cleaning up registration gaps, bad faith filings, or large-scale infringement later.

Key trigger points for engaging a specialist

• Market entry or brand launch: Before you announce your brand, sign with distributors, or open online stores targeting China.
• Setting up manufacturing or R&D in China: When negotiating OEM, contract manufacturing, JV, or R&D center arrangements involving technology or know-how.
• Discovery of counterfeits or grey exports: As soon as you spot counterfeit products or unauthorized exports from China-based suppliers or third parties.
• Complex patent or software disputes: For any potential litigation involving complex technology where technical investigators and expert evidence will be central.
• IP ownership or restructuring: When moving IP to holding companies, reorganizing group structures, or documenting intra-group licenses that affect China.

What a strong China IP team should provide

• Registration and portfolio management: Trademark and patent filing, strategy for Chinese marks, and alignment with global portfolios.
• Enforcement planning: Administrative, customs, platform, and litigation roadmaps tailored to your risk profile and budget.
• Deal support: IP clauses in distribution, OEM, JV, licensing, and M&A transactions, including due diligence on Chinese counterparties' IP.
• Evidence and compliance: Guidance on test purchases, notarization practices, internal record keeping, and aligning your systems with Chinese evidentiary requirements.

What are the next steps to build a China-focused IP strategy?

To build a robust China IP strategy, map your key assets, close registration gaps, secure your supply chain and contracts, and set up repeatable enforcement and monitoring processes. Treat China as a priority jurisdiction rather than an afterthought in your global IP program.

1. Audit your IP assets for China relevance
   • List all core brands, logos, Chinese brand variants, key technologies, designs, and software products used or made in China.
   • Check whether each asset is registered in China, and whether coverage matches current and planned business activities.
2. Prioritize and file registrations
   • File or expand trademark registrations, including Chinese character marks and relevant sub-classes.
   • Decide on invention, utility model, and design filings for important technologies and products manufactured in or sold into China.
   • Register software copyright and consider voluntary copyright registrations for high-value content.
3. Harden your contractual and internal controls
   • Update OEM, JV, distributor, and employee agreements to clarify IP ownership, confidentiality, and non-compete obligations within what Chinese law allows.
   • Implement internal trade secret policies and technical access controls at Chinese facilities and partners.
4. Establish administrative and customs enforcement
   • Record key IP rights with Chinese Customs and enroll in platform brand protection programs.
   • Identify target hotspots (regions, sectors, platforms) and build relationships with local AMR and IP authorities through counsel.
5. Prepare for litigation and complex disputes
   • Work with your China IP team to design a litigation playbook, including preferred forums, evidence-collection tactics, and approaches to technical investigators.
   • Set realistic budgets and escalation thresholds where you will move from administrative actions to civil or criminal measures.
6. Monitor, review, and adapt
   • Implement ongoing online and offline monitoring of counterfeits, squatters, and unauthorized filings.
   • Review your China IP strategy annually to reflect business changes, legal developments, and the evolving impact of the May 2025 reforms on enforcement practice.