Additional Resources

Operation Pangea is organized by Interpol and has been in existence since. This operation aims to reduce the sale and availability of counterfeit pharmaceuticals online with the active goal to reduce harms to Internet users and improve the internet experience. Enforcements happen at determined times throughout the year. If you are interested in learning how and when you can participate and submit infringing website for takedown, you may contact the US Customs Immigration and Customers Enforcement in the United States or Interpol in Europe.

Europol’s and the IPR Center’s hugely successful and long-standing Operation “In Our Sites” (IOS) focuses on the removal of counterfeit sites online across domain names. This operation utilizes multiple police agencies across Europe and the United States. Like Operation Pangea, enforcements happen annually at times determined by the law enforcement agencies. For more information on how to participate and where to submit infringing website information, companies should check with the IPR Center or Europol.

Operation Aphrodite is managed by the EU’s Intellectual Property Office and focuses exclusively on counterfeit sales on social media and websites. This operation is run with the cooperation of Europol and agencies in Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

This operation by the London Police’s IP Crime Unit aims to disrupt and prevent websites from providing unauthorized access to copyrighted content. With a wealth of UK advertising and music content organizations involved including the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), and PRS for Music, Operation Creative suspends and removes pirated content as well as advertising.

Designated by the National Copyright Administration of China, the Copyright Protection Center of China (CPCC) administers the copyright registration of various types of work, and it is the one and only institution designated to administer computer software registration. Some local Copyright Bureaus also have the right to administer copyright registration for local residents or companies.

Copyright registration is a relatively simple procedure and can be done on your own, whereas for trademark or patent registration, foreigners must hire and authorize a local agency to proceed.

To file a copyright registration, an applicant is required to submit an application form, identification certificate(s), ownership statement (if applicable), power of attorney (if applicable), and a sample of the work. Filing with the CPCC can be completed online here.

Registration fee varies by the type of work. Information on CPCC’s copyright registration fees can be found here.

If an application is completed and filed and no rectifications are requested, you can expect to receive the registration certificate in 30 business days after submitting the application.

The use of copyright notice is voluntary and optional (under US law, however, for works first published before March 1, 1989, use of the copyright notice was mandatory or could have resulted in the loss of copyright protection). Although not required, a copyright notice is highly advisable to be placed on your website whenever it is launched and becomes available to the public because it confers certain benefits to the copyright owner and adds an extra layer of protection.

• It signals the website viewer that the works on the website are protected by copyright and helps deter potential infringements.
• In the event that your copyright on the website is infringed and you sue, it acts as evidence of willful infringement and defeats an infringer’s defense of “innocent infringement,” which may help you win greater damages.
• It identifies the copyright owner and provides contact information for permission requests.

It is common and sufficient to place one copyright notice at the bottom of  the website homepage. You are perfectly free to include a notice on every single page.

A copyright notice generally consists of three elements:

• The copyright symbol or word: the symbol © ((the letter C in a circle), the word “copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”  It is recommended to use the © symbol because the words “copyright” and “Copr.” are not recognized by some jurisdictions while your website can be accessed all over the world.
• The year of the work’s first publication. While not necessary, it is common practice to use a date range (e.g., 2020-2022) to ensure that all of the current and previous contents on the site are encompassed. 
• The name of the copyright owner.

When you put all three together, you will get a valid copyright notice that looks like this: © 2023 IACC.

An “invention” refers to any new technical solution relating to a product, a process or an improvement thereof.  A “utility model” refers to any new technical solution relating to a product’s shape, structure, or a combination thereof, which is fit for practical use. 

To get the granted patent right, an invention or a utility model must possess novelty, inventiveness and practical applicability.

• The Chinese Patent Law adopts the “absolute novelty” standard.
• Inventiveness is similar to the European inventive step and the U.S. obviousness standard.
• Practical applicability means that the invention or utility model can be made or used and produce effective results.

Compared with inventions, utility models require less stringent criteria, have a simpler procedure, and have a shorter protection term. Utility models are also called “mini inventions” in China.

• To meet the inventiveness requirement, an invention must have prominent substantive features and represent notable progress, while a utility model has a lower standard of having substantive features and representing  progress.
• An application for an invention requires a substantive examination procedure to validate patentability, whereas an application for a utility model does not – the patent right for a utility model will be granted if no cause for rejection is found after the preliminary examination.
• An invention patent has a protection duration of 20 years from filing, whereas a utility model patent has a duration of 10 years from filing.

Because the registration process of utility models is often simpler and faster, startups and SMEs who wish to protect their innovations and creations in China can seek protection under utility models to get patent rights quickly and economically. For the same invention, it is common for an applicant to apply for both a patent for utility model and a patent for invention on the same day and obtain a utility model patent first. However, if later an invention patent is granted, the applicant must abandon the active utility model patent before an invention patent for the same invention can be issued. 

A “design” means a new design of the shape, pattern, or a combination thereof, as well as a combination of the color, shape and pattern of the entirety or a portion of a product, which creates an aesthetic feeling and is fit for industrial application. 

To get the granted patent right, a design must possess novelty and distinctive features, and may not conflict with the lawful rights that have been obtained by any other person prior to the date of application.

• Design patents provide exclusive use of the aesthetic features of a product. Although it must be novel, a design does not have to look good – it only has to have features that can be observed through a person’s eyes alone.
• Like utility models, an application for a design does not require a substantive examination procedure to validate patentability. A design patent will be granted if no cause for rejection is found after the preliminary examination.
• A design patent has a protection duration of 15  years from filling (10 years for applications filed before June 1,  2021).

SMEs should pay attention to the difference in the protection scope between design patents and utility model/invention patents. Generally speaking, design patents protect the aesthetic or ornamental features of a product (how the product looks externally), whereas utility model/invention patents protect the functional or utilitarian features of a product (how the product functions internally). That said, you may obtain both a design patent and a utility model/invention patent for the external appearance of a product when the shape or pattern of the product has functionality. 

Because patent applications for utility models and designs may be granted right after preliminary examination, utility model patents and design patents are deemed very unstable due to the lack of substantive examination. 

At the request of the patentee or interested parties, a patent evaluation report is a thorough assessment made by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) to determine if a particular design or utility model fits the granting conditions that are set by the Chinese Patent Law and Implementing Regulations (i.e., a comprehensive retrieval of the patentability of the requested patent). 

The request fee for a patent evaluation report is 2400 CNY. The CNIPA will compile a patent evaluation report within two months of receiving the qualified request.

The patent evaluation report provides a definitive conclusion regarding the patentability of the requested patent. There are three types of findings – the patent does not meet all the granting requirements, partially meets the granting requirements, and fully meets the granting requirements  (referred to as a “positive” report).

A positive report can be used as proof in courts as well as at local patent offices to review when there are disputes related to patent infringement. Moreover, obtaining a positive patent evaluation report is a prerequisite for online enforcement in China when dealing with complaints concerning utility models or design patents. E-commerce platforms such as Alibaba require patentees to provide a positive patent evaluation report issued by CNIPA when submitting a complaint.

A patent evaluation report is a form of evidence but not a legal decision. Therefore, if the requested patent is deemed to lack certain granting conditions based on the evaluation report’s findings, it does not automatically invalidate the patent for the utility model or design. Under certain circumstances, with a detailed strategy and careful analysis, patentees can still prevail in invalidation and patent infringement cases, despite non-positive conclusions. 

An applicant must file a trademark application directly with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). The application form and other relevant documents can be found at https://sbj.cnipa.gov.cn/sbj/sbsq/. For national registration in China, the application must be written in Chinese.

Foreign applicants intending to apply for trademark registration and handle other trademark-related matters in China must authorize a legally established trademark agency to act on their behalf. Therefore, if you do not have residency or a place of business in China, you must submit your trademark applications to CNIPA through a Chinese trademark agency.

Upon receiving a new application, CNIPA will conduct both a formality examination (e.g., checking adherence to the required format, completeness of documents, and proper signatures/stamps) and a substantive examination (e.g., assessing the trademark’s distinctiveness, similarity to existing trademarks, and potential conflicts with existing rights). If the application successfully passes both examinations without requiring any additional actions, the trademark will be preliminarily approved and published in the official Trademark Gazette for opposition purposes. If no oppositions are raised within the 3-month opposition period, the trademark application will proceed to registration, and a registration certificate will be issued. In general, CNIPA’s internal examination is expected to be completed within nine months.

The official public Trademark Gazette and CNIPA’s official trademark database are accessible online at https://sbj.cnipa.gov.cn/sbj/sbcx/. You can use them to search for existing trademarks and their status.

When you come across a trademark filing that you believe infringes on your prior rights, you have the opportunity to initiate an opposition with the CNIPA to request the refusal of its registration. It’s crucial to file this opposition within three months following the official publication of the trademark in the Trademark Gazette. If you fail to oppose within the time period or your opposition is unsuccessful, the trademark will be registered.

In the event that your opposition is not successful, or if the unwanted trademark is already registered by the time you discover it, the next step is to file an invalidation request with the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board. It’s important to note that trademark invalidation carries a five-year statutory limitation. However, requests based on bad-faith registration and those initiated by owners of well-known trademarks are exceptions to this limitation, enabling you to take action even after the five-year mark.

One other approach for addressing unwanted registered trademarks is through non-use cancellation. If a trademark owner fails to use their trademark in commerce for three consecutive years, you will have the option to request its cancellation. Upon receiving a cancellation request, the CNIPA provides the trademark owner with a two-month response period to substantiate their actual use of the trademark. Non-use cancellations can be relatively successful in tackling marks that appear to have been obtained in bad faith and are not genuinely used.

At the legislative level, the 2019 amendments to China’s Trademark Law have substantially strengthened trademark protections. These amendments specifically target bad-faith filings and registrations, expressly stating that trademarks filed without a genuine intent to use shall not be registered. Moreover, trademark authorities are empowered to ex officio reject and invalidate bad-faith filings and registrations, and the CNIPA has taken assertive measures against these types of trademarks.

Legitimate rights holders and interested parties can initiate oppositions and invalidations against trademarks believed to have been obtained in bad faith. The determination of bad faith takes into account various factors, including, but not limited to:

• A large number of trademark applications filed within a short period, covering a wide range of classes of goods and services beyond the business scope.
• Unreasonable demands for high transfer fees, license fees, or infringement damages.
• Misleading marketing and advertising that confuses the public.
• Imitation or copying of a significant number of distinctive trademarks with established market recognition and reputation.
• Third-party applicants knowingly or having reason to know about an established trademark due to a business relationship but still attempting to register it.

However, the determination of bad faith is made on a case-by-case basis, which can be a challenging process, and the evidentiary burden is high. Under China’s “first-to-file” system, it is always crucial for businesses to register their trademarks as early as possible to secure exclusive rights. Failure to do so may result in other parties registering identical or similar marks, leading to disputes and the erosion of the brand identity.

In 2023, China released draft amendments to the Trademark Law for public comment. These amendments encompass significant changes aimed at combating bad-faith trademark filings. Key changes include a requirement to submit a statement of use every five years after registration. According to the provision as currently drafted, trademark owners would be obligated to file a statement of use or provide justification for nonuse to the CNIPA every five years. Failure to timely or properly submit a statement or justification will result in the cancellation of the trademark. The draft also outlines the establishment of a mandatory transfer mechanism for trademarks registered in bad faith, enabling legitimate brand owners to request the transfer of such trademarks under certain circumstances.