1. Information about Trademark Application and Registration

In 2013, CTMO accepted 1,881,500 trademark applications, a year-on-year increase of 14.15%, a record high, ranking the first in the world for consecutive 12 years. The total trademark applications from 2009 to 2013 (which is 6.85 million) had exceeded the summation of 28 years' trademark applications (which is 6.39 million). The consecutively high growth rate of amount of trademark applications had been continued.

In 2013, the electronic application through internet reached 1,175,800, 62.49% of the total applications, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, thus it can be seen, electronic application through internet has been taken by more and more applicants and became the main way for trademark application. By Dec2013, there were trademark applications 13,241,300 in total, trademark registrations of 8,652,400, and valid registered trademarks of 7,237,900.

In 2013, CTMO accepted 34,667 applications filed for opposition, a decrease of 4.58%, which showed that the ratio of acceptance to preliminarily approved trademarks by interested party was highly improved; 119,324 for renewal, an increase of 11.54%, 177,239 for modification of registered items, an increase of 16.46%, 113,364 for trademark assignments, an increase of 7.36%, 21,414 for annulment and cancellation, an increase of 28.74%, 29,438 for recordal of trademark license contracts, a decrease of 4.31%, and 53,008 for Madrid trademark International Registration applications for territorial extension, an increase of 9.1%.

In 2013, CTMO examined 1,424,600 trademarks applications, an increase of 16.09%. The examining period was kept in 10 months. CTMO approved 9 9 6 , 7 2 4 a p p l i c a t i o n s f o r
registration, preliminarily approved 936,750, an increase of 14.53%, rejected 262,185, an increase of 14.63%, partially rejected 225,744, an increase of 25.07%. The growth rate of partially rejected trademarks was higher than that of preliminarily approved and rejected trademarks.43,526 opposition cases were closed in this year, a decrease of 40.49% (the examination of opposition cases was getting harder, because of regaining the way of ruling through reasoning). The examining period of trademark opposition was kept in 12 months.

In 2013, CTMO processed 181,991 applications for modifications, an increase of 20.86%,114,607
assignments, an increase of 12.43%, 122,685 renewals, an increase of 22.02%, and 123,415 annulments cancellations, an increase of 9.36%. CTMO processed 34,998 recordal of trademark license contracts, an increase of 29.89%, 582 recordal of special marks, an increase of 41.95%; examined 42,743 Madrid territory extension applications, an increase of 2.41% and processed 27,611 applications for international registrations' modification, renewal, assignment, annulment, cancellation and correction, an increase of 41.54%.

In 2013, CTMO approved and preliminarily approved 436 geographical indications as certification marks and collective marks applications, an increase of 16.89%. By the end of 2013, it had totally approved and preliminarily approved 2,190 geographical indications as certification marks and collective marks, and approved 1,447,300 trademarks of agricultural products.

2. Trademark application analysis

In terms of the goods and services designated for trademark application, Classes 25(216,446), 35(155,783 ), 9(114,976 ), 30(103,217 ) and 29(76,207 ) as defined in the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purpose of the Registration of Trademarks were among the top ones with the largest number of applications. The five largest classes designated remain the same as the year before, which indicated that clothing, business service, apparatus and equipment, food are the main fields where the trademark are applied. In terms of the goods and services designated for trademark application by foreign applicants (including Madrid trademark applications for territorial extension), Classes 9(14,107 ), 35(10,882 ),25(9,905 ), 3(6,816 ), 5(6,488) as defined in the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purpose of the Registration of Trademarks were among the top ones with the largest number of applications. The statistics indicated that apparatus and equipment , business service, clothing, cosmetics and washing matter, pharmaceuticals were the main fields where the foreign trademark are applied.

The top five provinces (municipalities) with the largest number of domestic applications were the same as last year, which were Guangdong(318,789), Zhejiang(178,978), Beijing(133,510), Jiangsu(110,097), Shanghai(106,374), altogether amounting 48.91% of the total domestic applications, same as last year. Provinces with over 40,000 applications also included Fujian, Shandong, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Henan, Chongqing, Hebei, Anhui, Hunan and Shanxi, 4 provinces more than last year.

The top five provinces (municipalities) with the largest year-on-year increase were Shanxi(increase 39.82%), Xizang(increase 37.08%), Hong Kong(increase 28%), Anhui(increase 27.57%), Hebei(increase 23.99%). The applications of 12 western provinces totaled 257,861, a year-on- year increase of 13.18%.

The top five provinces (municipalities) with the largest number of applications for international registrations were Guangdong(503), Zhejiang(409), Shandong(233), Jiangsu(199) and Fujian(159).

The top ten countries or regions with the largest number of foreign trademark applications (including Madrid trademark applications for territorial extension) were the USA(30875 pieces), Japan(16,604), Germany(10,765), European Union(10,252), France(9,629), the United Kingdom(8627), Republic of Korea(8,331), Italy(6,655), Swiss(5,485) and Australia(3,541). Trademark applications from the above ten countries or regions accounted for 74.75% of the total foreign applications in China.

3. Trademark Mortgage

In 2013, there were 818 applications for trademark rights mortgage recorded, 7438 trademarks pledged, and 40.18 billion Yuan involved, separately increasing by 19.2%, 41.8% and 87.2%.

4. Trademark infringement

In 2013, AICs at all levels investigated and dealt with 56,867 various trademark-related cases,
of which 6,896 cases were general violation cases and 49,971 cases were trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, including 11,735 foreign-related cases. In the various violation cases, totally 6.53 million illegal trademark labels were seized and eliminated and 362 suspected criminal cases and 347 suspects were transferred to judicial organizations.

The top ten provinces and municipalities with the largest number of cases investigated and handled were: Zhejiang with 6,142, Guangdong with 5,965, Anhui with 4,930, Fujian with 4,146, Shanghai with 2,990, Jiangsu with 2,725, Hubei with 2,267, Shandong with 2,251, Liaoning with 1,118, and Beijing with 1,024. The above mentioned cases added up to 33,558, accounting for 67% of all trademark violation cases. Judging from the illegal use of registered trademarks, 510 cases were about “selling shoddy products with inferior quality to cheat consumers”, accounting for 59% of all cases related to registered trademark utilization and management cases; 259 cases were about “unauthorized alternation to registered trademark”, accounting for 30%.

Among all cases in relation to illegal utilizations of unregistered trademarks, the cases of “unregistered trademarks were falsely represented as registered trademarks” still occupied a large portion, totaling 3956 cases, accounting for 88% of utilization and management of unregistered trademarks.

As to the cases of trademark infringements, the cases of “selling products that infringe upon the exclusive rights of registered trademarks” were still the main form with the total number of 31,819 accounting for 75.4% of trademark infringements cases. There were 6068 cases of “using a trademark similar to the registered one on identical products, or using the same or similar trademarks on similar products without authorization from the registrant of that trademark”, accounting for 14.4%. 1668 cases concerned “knowingly providing warehousing, transportation, mailing and hidden facilities for activities violating exclusive rights of registered trademarks”, accounting for 4%. 1311 cases were involving “using a mark identical with or similar to the registered trademark of others as the name or decoration of identical or similar products to mislead the public”, accounting for 3%.

As to the cases of trademark counterfeiting, the number of cases investigated and handled was
7786. Among them, the cases of “using a trademark identical to a registered trademark on identical products without the authorization from the registered trademark holders” and “knowingly selling products bearing counterfeited registered trademarks” were the main forms, with the number of 3492 and 3478 respectively, accounting for 44.8% and 44.7% of all the cases.
In 2013, 11,735 foreign-related trademark violation cases were investigated and treated. Judging
from the case proportions, foreign-related trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases remained the dominant position. Among all the cases, 11,636 were foreign-related trademark infringement and counterfeiting cases, accounting for 99.2% of the total number, and 99 were general violation cases.

In 2013, there were 14,770 cases of complaint concerning trademark violations, accounting for 26% of the total number of trademark violation cases.


(extracted from Annual Development Report on China's Trademark Strategy 2013, from the website of Industry and Commerce)