The newly amended 2026 Trademark Law will officially take effect on January 1, 2027. At the heart of this revision is a fundamental reshaping of the underlying logic of trademark registration and protection, refocusing on the legislative purpose that trademarks are meant to be used. Strong measures have been introduced to crack down on speculative activities such as trademark hoarding and bad-faith pre-emptive registrations, while trademark administration has been significantly strengthened, bringing profound implications for brand portfolio planning and protection strategies both domestically and internationally. The new law explicitly stipulates:

Trademark applications lacking intent to use and clearly exceeding normal business needs shall not be approved. Those causing adverse effects may face fines of up to RMB 100,000, which is expected to curb hoarding, pre-emptive registrations, and bad-faith filings at the source. Companies are advised to align their trademark filing strategies with actual business needs and avoid blindly broadening filing classes of goods and services.

The exit mechanism for idle registered trademarks has been upgraded. In addition to the existing procedure allowing any party to request for revocation of a trademark that has not been used for three consecutive years without a justifiable reason, the trademark authorities may now proactively clear up idle trademarks ex officio. Moreover, a new maximum fine of RMB 250,000 has been introduced for the misleading use of a registered trademark (commonly known as “manipulative trademarks”), and failure to rectify such use may result in revocation. It is recommended that enterprises promptly put into use or voluntarily clear up registered trademarks for which they have no usage plan, standardize their trademark use, and maintain complete evidence of trademark use across all channels, both online and offline.

The trademark examination and granting process has been significantly accelerated, and the opposition period following preliminary approval has been shortened from 3 months to 2 months. The window for brand monitoring and filing oppositions has thus been compressed. Companies may work with professional service agencies to establish a regular trademark watch mechanism and optimize internal decision-making processes to respond efficiently to these procedural changes.

Furthermore, it has been clarified that unregistered well-known trademarks may enjoy cross-class protection, and a domestic well-known status recognition channel has been established to support Chinese brands seeking to enforce their rights overseas. The new law also adds “dynamic marks” as registrable elements, meeting the visual protection needs of short-video and digital brands.