Written for companies with no place of business in China. Every deadline below is one the law states expressly, with the article number attached—not a figure someone quoted from memory.
Foreign applicants get this wrong in two opposite directions. Most assume that using an agency is optional—it is not. A few assume the rule catches every foreign company—it does not.
An applicant for trademark registration or other trademark matters may handle the matter itself or entrust a lawfully established trademark agency to handle it. A foreigner or foreign enterprise applying for trademark registration or handling other trademark matters in China shall entrust a lawfully established trademark agency to handle them.
— Trademark Law, Article 18 (currently in force, through 31 December 2026)
From 2027-01-01, this provision becomes Article 11(2) of the Trademark Law (2026 revision)—the revision writes the above qualification directly into the article and adds “other foreign organizations.” The obligation itself is unchanged.
And “foreign enterprise” is defined more narrowly than most people expect—this is the part that decides whether the obligation reaches you at all:
The foreigners or foreign enterprises referred to in Article 18 of the Trademark Law are foreigners or foreign enterprises that have no habitual residence or place of business in China.
— Implementing Regulations of the Trademark Law, Article 5 (currently in force, through 31 December 2026)
So what matters is not your nationality on paper but whether you have a habitual residence or place of business in China. A US company selling through a Chinese distributor has neither; a German manufacturer that uses contract manufacturing in China has neither. Both must file through an agency.
The Implementing Regulations also require a foreign applicant's power of attorney to state the principal's nationality—a small detail that triggers a surprising number of correction notices at formality examination.
Here is what the law requires. Not what usually happens in practice—what the statute says. The fourth column matters: the Trademark Law was revised on 2026-06-26, and the new article numbers apply from 2027-01-01.
| Stage | Statutory time limit (current) | Legal basis | From 2027-01-01 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substantive examinationExamination to be completed within nine months of receipt of the application documents | 9 months from receipt of the application documents | Article 28 Trademark Law, Article 28 | Article 329 months — unchanged |
| Opposition period (after preliminary approval publication)An opposition may be filed within three months of the date of preliminary approval publication | 3 months from the date of preliminary approval publication | Article 33 Trademark Law, Article 33 | Article 36 — shortened to 2 months |
| Review of refusalApply for review within fifteen days of the refusal; the review is decided within nine months | Apply for review within 15 days of the refusal; the review is decided within 9 months of receipt of the application | Article 34 Trademark Law, Article 34 | Article 3715 days — unchanged |
| Opposition decisionDecided within twelve months, extendable by six months with approval | 12 months, extendable by 6 months with approval | Article 35 Trademark Law, Article 35 | — |
Source: Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (2019 Amendment) (currently in force, through 2026-12-31) · Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (2026 Revision) (National People's Congress text, in force from 2027-01-01). Last checked: 2026-07-16.
The nine-month examination deadline survives the revision unchanged (it becomes Article 32). So does the fifteen-day deadline for review after a refusal (Article 37). But the opposition period is cut from three months to two—from 2027-01-01, under Article 36 of the new law. The date from which the exclusive right runs moves with it: it is now counted from the expiry of the two-month publication period, not three.
If you are watching a trademark portfolio in China, that is a third of your reaction time gone at a stroke—on a fixed date, with no phase-in. Most English-language guides have not caught up: as this is written, the revision is barely three weeks old.
One more thing is worth knowing before you rely on any English-language material written before January 2027. The revision also deletes the titles “Trademark Office” and “Trademark Review and Adjudication Board” (TRAB), replacing both throughout with “the trademark administrative department of the State Council.” The abbreviation TRAB appears in almost every English-language guide to Chinese trademark practice. From 1 January 2027, it will refer to a body that no longer exists in the statute.
How the revision treats applications still under examination on 2027-01-01, we cannot tell you. The only transitional provision in the entire law is Article 87(2): “Trademarks registered before this Law takes effect remain valid.” It says nothing about applications in the pipeline. The gap will probably be closed by the Implementing Regulations or a judicial interpretation, but neither has been published. Anyone who gives you a definitive answer today is guessing.
Nine months of examination, then three months of publication, during which anyone can file an opposition. So even a smooth, unopposed application is very unlikely to be registered in under twelve months—yet at the examination stage, CNIPA has no power to take longer than nine.
You will see ranges like “8–12 months” and “12–18 months” quoted with great confidence across the English-language internet, often on the same screen and contradicting each other. Those are recollections of practice. Not useless—practice is what you will actually experience—but nobody seems to mention that there is a law, and the law contains a number. It does, and the number is nine months.
We do not publish a “typical timeline” figure of our own. It would be easy—every firm has one, drawn from its own docketing records—but it would dress up our experience as a fact about China, and you already have plenty of numbers like that. What we can tell you is the statutory ceiling, which you can verify, and what we are currently seeing in the cases on our desk—and the latter we will tell you directly when you ask about your own case.
The official fee for online filing is CNY 270 per class (about USD 40 at the rate of 1 USD = 6.75 CNY that we checked on 2026-08-10), covering up to ten goods or services items in that class, plus CNY 27 per item beyond ten. Paper filing costs CNY 300 and CNY 30 respectively—there is no reason to file on paper. The statutory currency of official fees is the renminbi; the dollar figures are dated reference conversions only.
Our own service fee is quoted in writing for each case—the quotation we send you sets it out alongside the official fees above. See how we charge for our fee model and the official fee guide for the full schedule.
No. What you need is a Chinese agency—which is not the same thing. Article 18 of the Trademark Law requires foreign applicants to act through a lawfully established Chinese trademark agency, and the agency's address becomes the address of record for the file. You do not need a subsidiary, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), a distributor, or a Chinese address of your own.
The law gives the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) nine months from receipt of the application to complete examination (Article 28); after preliminary approval is published, there is a further three-month opposition period (Article 33). So even a smooth, unopposed application is very unlikely to be completed in under twelve months—yet the examination stage itself cannot lawfully exceed nine months. Most English-language sources give ranges like 8–12 or 12–18 months without saying where the numbers come from; those are recollections of practice, not the time limits the law actually sets.
No. The figure circulates so widely that it deserves a correction of its own. The current Trademark Law sets no separate statutory deadline for formality examination. Four months is simply a practitioner's rule of thumb. Any guide that presents it as a statutory deadline has not read the statute.
You have fifteen days from receipt of the refusal notice to apply for review (Article 34). The deadline is statutory, short, and runs from “receipt”—which, for a foreign applicant, means the moment your agency receives it. That is the weightiest practical reason to choose an agency that keeps a tight grip on docketing rather than one that files and forgets.
Yes, and you should. China is a first-to-file jurisdiction: rights follow the register, not the market. The moment you manufacture here, negotiate with distributors here, or even just exhibit at a trade fair, your brand is already in the sights of people who squat on trademarks for a living.
Yes, within six months of your first filing in a Paris Convention member state. CNIPA charges no separate official fee for a trademark priority claim, but the priority documents must be complete and in order.
Similar groups: the step that most often breaks a foreign application →
The most common way a foreign trademark registration in China ends up worth less than its owner thinks.
What CNIPA actually charges →
The full official fee schedule, with document numbers.
