Legal updates and opinions
Post 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
Automatic transfers of employment – the strength of Section 197
Through the introduction of section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995 (LRA) the idea was introduced into South [...]
Foreign employers, foreign employees and remote workers and South African labour laws – do they always apply?
and Kelly Sease, Candidate Attorney The Labour Relations Act ("LRA") amongst other important functions, regulates the rights of employees whose [...]
Previous renewal does not automatically constitute an expectation of re-renewal
and Tasreeq Ferreira, Candidate Attorney Issue Whether the non-renewal of an employee's fixed term contract ("FTC")constituted an unfair dismissal as [...]
Enforcement notice issued to Dis-Chem due to contravention of POPIA
and Chiara Ferri, Candidate Attorney The importance of compliance has once again been highlighted as the Information Regulator issued an [...]
What are you worth? “if you’re not paying for a product, then you are a product.”
In the digital world, this happens to be true. But it is not only companies that have realised the value [...]
The privacy of customers seemingly protected by RICA
The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002 ("RICA") was enacted more [...]
