Legal updates and opinions
Author
News / News
Amendments To China’s Trade Mark Laws
By Donvay Wegierski, Director
In April 2019 it was announced that certain Amendments to China’s Trade Mark law will come into effect on 1 November 2019 including:
- Increasing the content against bad-faith registration for the purpose of regulating the acts of bad-faith applications and hoarding registrations otherwise known as “trade mark squatters”.
- Reinforcing the penalties for trade mark infringement.
During the course of 2018 seven million trade mark applications were filed in China with over eighteen million trade marks on the Chinese register belonging to Chinese nationals. The vast number of trade marks filed are indicative of many which are filed and retained in bad faith preventing the rightful proprietors from doing so.
The amendments will introduce measures for the Chinese Trade Mark office to refuse trade mark applications filed in bad faith which are not intended for use and and will no doubt be welcomed by brand owners worldwide. Trade mark proprietors may also include “bad faith registration / not for use” as a basis in trade mark oppositions and invalidations.
If you would like to learn more about Intellectual Property please visit our practice area page.
Latest News
The approach of the COMESA competition commission to distribution, exclusive dealing, supply and other vertical agreements
By Pieter Steyn, Director The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) covers 21 countries namely Burundi, the Comoros, [...]
Relaxing Cannabis
By Neil Kirby, Director The regulatory travels of cannabis continue. In terms of amendments published to the Schedules to the [...]
NUMSA v LUFIL: Does the Constitutional Court judgment accord with government’s policy of orderly bargaining at sectoral level?
By Lloyd Abraham, Director This article is a follow up to the article dealing with the case National Union of [...]
Turbulence in the Business Rescue of SAA – a new hurdle on the retrenchment track?
By Sandile July, Director and Lisa Appelgryn, Senior Associate On 08 May 2020, the Labour Court handed down what could be considered [...]
Accommodating employees in the workplace
by Jacques van Wyk, Director; Andre van Heerden, Senior Associate and Thabisa Yantolo, Candidate Attorney Under the current COVID-19 regulations, [...]
Update: Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme (“TERS”): The May application process
by Jacques van Wyk, Director; Andre van Heerden, Senior Associate; and Thabisa Yantolo, Candidate Attorney On 28 May 2020 the [...]
