Protecting your brand and your moulds in China
Two assets are regularly lost in China for want of timely protection: the name you sell under, and the tooling you paid for. Both are governed by rules with no European equivalent.
Updated September 2026
First to file, not first to use
China awards a trademark to whoever files it first, regardless of prior use. It does not matter how many years you have traded under your name in Europe: if it is filed in China by someone else, that person owns it.
A national or European Union trademark produces no effect there. Protection is territorial: it stops at the borders of the office that granted it.
The consequence reaches back into your own flows. A local owner can oppose the export of goods bearing « its » trademark — that is, yours — and block your shipments from the very factory making them for you.
Opportunistic filing is not an accident
There are operators whose business consists of watching product launches, crowdfunding campaigns and foreign trade fairs, in order to file in China the names not yet protected there. The filing is lawful; the resale is then negotiated.
The most frequent profile, however, is not the professional filer but the former partner: a distributor, an agent, sometimes the manufacturer itself, which files the trademark during the relationship and uses it as leverage the day you want to change.
The reform China has undertaken strengthens sanctions against bad-faith filings, with administrative fines against filers and complicit agencies. Recovering a trademark filed by a third party nonetheless remains a long process whose outcome is never assured.
The sub-class trap
China follows the international classification of forty-five classes, but subdivides them into sub-classes of its own. Two products sitting in the same international class can fall into different sub-classes — and a filing in one does not protect in the other.
This is the costliest mistake for a foreign company: a clearance search limited to the main class concludes the way is clear, when a neighbouring sub-class is already occupied. The problem surfaces months later, when the office refuses the filing or a third party comes forward.
The real scope of a Chinese filing is therefore read at sub-class level, not class level. That is specialist work, and precisely where a trademark attorney earns their fee.
Moulds, an asset you think you own
Financing a mould is not enough to own it: payment settles the making of the tooling, not its fate. Absent express stipulation, nothing obliges the workshop to give it up the day you want to produce elsewhere — and nothing stops it amortising the tool across other orders.
Three points are settled in writing, before the first payment: who owns it, where it is stored and who maintains it, and on what terms it can be recovered — notice, condition, who bears the transfer.
To which add a matter of common sense: have those clauses carried by a document chopped by the company, not by an exchange of emails with a salesperson.
Frequently asked questions
- Does my European trademark protect me in China?
No. Trademark protection is territorial: a national or European Union trademark produces no effect in China. A separate filing is required, with the Chinese office or through the international route designating China. Without it, a third party can lawfully file your name and become its owner.
- What is the first-to-file system?
A system that awards the trademark to whoever files it first, independently of prior use. China applies it, unlike countries that recognise rights arising from use. The age of your European trading therefore creates no right there, and is not in itself sufficient ground to recover a filing made by a third party.
- Why are Chinese sub-classes a problem?
Because China subdivides the forty-five international classes into sub-classes of its own, and a filing in one sub-class does not protect in a neighbouring one. A clearance search limited to the main class can therefore wrongly conclude that the way is clear. The real scope of a filing is read at sub-class level.
- What if a third party has already filed my trademark in China?
The situation can be addressed, but not alone and not quickly: depending on the case, an invalidation action for bad-faith filing, proceedings for non-use, or negotiating a buy-back. The Chinese reform strengthens sanctions against abusive filings. These routes are matters for a trademark attorney, and their outcome is never assured in advance.
- Does the mould I paid for belong to me?
Not automatically. Financing it is not enough to own it: absent a written clause, the factory may keep it, refuse to move it, or even use it for other customers. Ownership, place of storage, maintenance and the terms of recovery are settled in writing before the first payment, on a document chopped by the company.
- Should I file my trademark before contacting suppliers?
That is the more prudent order, since making contact puts your name into circulation. Filing takes several months, which leaves a window during which nothing protects you. The question of timing deserves to be put to a trademark attorney before launching a wide consultation, not after.
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