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China Trademarks. Doing Them With Class.
Aggregated Source: China Challenges

Dan Harris says:

China breaks out its trademark registrations into 45 different classes, not to mention sub-classes.  And unlike many other countries, China is a “single class application” country, which means that you must file (and pay for) a separate trademark application for each class for which you are seeking trademark protection.  Very roughly speaking, what this means is that if you register your “ABC Trademark” in the class for clothing, you will be protected from trademark infringement just from those who use your ABC Trademark on clothing items.  If someone wants to use your ABC trademark on clocks, cars, kitchen appliances, or any other product or service within any of the other 44 classes, they will be free to do so.

So then what can you do?  Well obviously you can register your “ABC Trademark” in all 45 classes, but that is really no solution at all. It is no solution both because doing that would be prohibitively expensive for all but the largest and wealthiest companies.  It is also no solution because if you fail to use your registered trademark for three years, you risk losing it.

So then what should you do when filing for China trademarks?  We suggest that you register your mark in classes of products you may make or sell in the future, or where there is room for consumer confusion.  Let’s take your ABC Trademark on clothing.  It probably does not make sense for you to register that for kitchen appliances but it might make sense for you to register it for beauty products because so many clothing companies also make beauty products.

Unfortunately, there are no general rules here, beyond that you fully familiarize yourself with China’s various trademark classes and that you figure out as early as possible what classes your products/services best fit into now or may fit into in the future and also what registrations by others are most likely to be confused for yours.

Read more: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2012/11/china-trademarks-when-to-go-full-class.html

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