To further standardize the trademark cancellation procedure and improve filing efficiency, the Trademark Office of the CNIPA has revised the Application for Cancellation of Registered Trademarks of 3-year Nonuse. The most significant revision lies in clarifying the applicant's burden of proof and the requirement for evidence quantification, which has led to a significant shift in the long-standing "reversal of burden of proof" rule.

1. Revision Background

The intention of cancellation of registered trademarks of 3-year nonuse (referred to as "3-year Cancellation") is to prevent trademark hoarding and urge trademark registrants to use trademarks. However, in practice, due to the rule of "reversal of burden of proof", applicants often initiate the cancellation procedure without sufficient evidence, leading to a proliferation of malicious applications and forcing registrants to bear heavy burden of proofing, which may even affect their normal operation and brand building. At the same time, it also consumed a large amount of administrative resources and disrupted the fair and orderly trademark market environment.

2. Major revisions

The new revisions of the 3-year cancellation regulations focus on clarifying the applicant's burden of proof in the 3-year cancellation procedure and introducing quantitative and standardized evidence requirements, mainly including the following aspects.

1. Forwarding the burden of proof

The original provision stipulates that the burden of proof should be borne by the trademark registrant. After revision, the applicant shall provide sufficient evidence to prove that the applied trademark has not been used for three consecutive years without justifiable reasons, significantly increasing the applicant's burden of proof.

2. Quantification of Evidence Requirements

The applicant needs to provide supporting materials from the following three aspects.

1) basic information of the trademark registrant: such as the business scope, operational status, and registered trademark situation of the applied trademark registrant;

2) market research on the applied trademark: including but not limited to online search evidence (at least 5 consecutive pages of search results for each search condition must be provided on comprehensive online platforms, e-commerce platforms, and industry websites), professional reports such as industry research reports or third-party analysis reports, and on-site investigation evidence;

3) integrity commitment mechanism which clearly stipulates that applicants need to confirm the content of the integrity commitment clause before submitting the cancellation application. Submission is considered acceptance to avoid false statements and abuse of procedures; and

4) tougher review. The Trademark Office will strictly review the applicant, increasing the cost and difficulty of the application, in order to reduce dishonest behavior such as evidence falsification.

3. Practical strategies and suggestions

In the context of the implementation of the new regulations on the 3-year cancellation, applicants for such cancellation should focus on the following strategies:

1) investigate and screen target trademarks in advance to avoid invalid applications;

2) establish a systematic evidence list template to ensure that materials are complete and meet standards;

3) utilize professional tools and platforms to improve the efficiency of evidence collection; and

4) it is recommended to entrust a professional agency to ensure procedural compliance and application quality.

This revision marks a significant improve of China's 3-year cancellation system, changing the original "reversal of burden of proof" rule, making the procedure fairer and more transparent, and enhancing the credibility of the trademark system. In the future, trademark applications and users need to pay real-time attention to relevant laws and regulations, keep up with policy trends, rely on professional teams, in order to safeguard their own rights and promote the healthy and orderly development of the entire trademark industry ecosystem.