Commissioner Kim Yong-seon says reform will help create fair trademark environment for both countries
New rules take effect Tuesday, blocking bad-faith filings and imposing fines on malicious applicants
South Korea's intellectual property authority has welcomed a comprehensive overhaul of China's trademark law, which introduces measures to block non-use filings and impose fines on bad-faith applicants.
Kim Yong-seon, commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), said China's fully revised trademark law passed the National People's Congress and takes effect Tuesday. "This will serve as an opportunity to create a fair trademark environment for both countries," he said, urging South Korean companies operating in China to carefully manage evidence of trademark use.
China drafted the revised trademark law with the primary goals of preventing the registration of bad-faith trademarks, strengthening consumer protection and overhauling the oversight framework for trademark agency firms. The legislation passed after roughly three years of review and public consultation.
Under the revised law, squatting on another party's trademark through unauthorized preemptive registration becomes significantly harder. Applicants who knowingly copy or preempt another's mark may receive a warning and a fine of up to 100,000 yuan ($14,700) under Article 54.
The law also explicitly lists, as grounds for rejecting registration, the mass filing of applications that far exceed normal business needs without any genuine intent to use the marks (Article 19). South Korean companies whose trademarks have been maliciously preempted in China will therefore be better positioned to challenge such registrations through oppositions or invalidation proceedings under these provisions.
Consumer protection has also been expanded. Using a trademark in a way that exaggerates or misrepresents a product's performance or origin — causing consumers to be misled — is now deemed unlawful. Violators face a corrective order and a fine of up to five times the profits gained from the violation; where profits are difficult to calculate, the ceiling is 250,000 yuan, or about 55 million won ($35,500). Severe violations may result in cancellation of the trademark registration (Article 56). South Korean companies should therefore take care to avoid exaggerated or misleading expressions in advertising and labeling within China.
The supervisory framework for trademark agency firms has also been tightened. The revised law clarifies reporting obligations for such agencies and strengthens regulators' oversight authority to prevent them from facilitating bad-faith filings or engaging in unfair practices in the agency market (Articles 65 and 67). This is expected to reduce the risk of harm to South Korean companies from negligent or malicious agents and to provide a more reliable environment for filing and managing trademarks in China.
Meanwhile, the crackdown on bad-faith trademark squatting in the revised law aligns with a shared commitment the two countries made at a bilateral intellectual property chiefs' meeting held on the sidelines of the South Korea-China summit in January.
At that meeting, Kim met with Shen Changyu, commissioner of China's National Intellectual Property Administration, and the two sides agreed to work together against filings aimed at preempting others' trademarks for unjust gain.
"We welcome China's trademark law revision, which we believe will create a more predictable and fair trademark environment for companies in both countries," Kim said. "As the system shifts toward a use-based approach, South Korean companies need to systematically manage evidence of trademark use in China — including sales, advertising and retail records — on an ongoing basis."
He added that KIPO would closely analyze the revised provisions and actively support South Korean companies in securing and protecting their trademark rights in the Chinese market through its overseas intellectual property centers.
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
