It’s necessary to know some basic notions in the Chinese Commercial Law when you’re doing business here.
Raymond, an attorney from HuiYe Law firm, came to share valuable knowledge about legal topics for entrepreneurs. He taught us part of applicable laws about patent, trademark, and so on. Besides, he also illustrated where you can find every company’s legal proceedings such as labor arbitration, tax evasion, other economic disputes, etc. Official websites for searching patents and trademarks are also listed.
01 Patent Law
Utility Patent
- Lower requirement for inventiveness (easier granted and harder to invalidate)
- 10 years protection
- No substantive examination (need an extra search report for litigation)
Design Patent
- Protection for Industrial designs
- 15 years protection
- Overlap with 3d-trademark and copyright
- No substantive examination (need an extra search report for litigation)
02 Trademark Law
“First Filing” Principle
- 6-12 months for registration
- Rehearing if rejected
- *Invalidation
Limited Protection for Non-registered Marks
- Influence in market
- Limited in the current extent
Evidencing for Trademark Usage
- Public usage in commercial activities
- Good faith in actual product / service marketing
What if the trademark is “rush registered” by someone else (trademark squatters)?
- Challenge the registration in “Public Notice” period
P.S. 3 months “Public Notice” after initial examination by Trademark Office CNIPA
- Challenge after the registration is approved
P.S. Dispute request to Trademark Review Board
- *File invalidatio
P.S. “Fraudulent” or “Unfair” means (Bad-faith)
03 List of Related Websites
The websites people use the most to search for companies’ legal proceedings——litigation & enforcement:
- www.tianyancha.com
- www.qcc.com
- aiqicha.baidu.com
- www.qixin.com
The offcial website for trademark:
http://sbj.cnipa.gov.cn/
The offcial website for patent：
We appreciate the introduction of the commercial law that lawyer Raymond gave in our Bootcamp.
END