The Trademark Law was revised on 2026-06-26 and takes effect on 2027-01-01. Most of the changes are renumbering, but two things deserve a foreign applicant's attention: one deadline gets shorter, and every article number you have ever bookmarked will change.
If your company has no habitual residence or place of business in China, it must act through a lawfully established Chinese agency. That rule is the reason this firm exists—and far from loosening it, the revision lifts the qualifying language that used to sit in the Implementing Regulations into the text of the law itself:
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)
Read together with Article 5 of the Implementing Regulations of the Trademark Law, which defines “foreigner or foreign enterprise” as one with no habitual residence or place of business in China. A foreign enterprise that already has a branch or representative office in China is not subject to this requirement and may file on its own.
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.
One correction to something you may read elsewhere: this is not a case of “Articles 17 and 18 merging into Article 11.” The actual migration is: Article 18(1) (handle it yourself or through an agency) becomes Article 10; Article 17 (reciprocity) becomes Article 11(1); Article 18(2) (mandatory agency for foreign parties) becomes Article 11(2), with “other foreign organizations” added.
From 2027-01-01, anyone who wants to oppose a trademark after its preliminary approval is published has two months, no longer three. If you watch the gazette for your own brand—or rely on someone else to watch it for you—the time between spotting a problem publication and filing a well-argued opposition has just been cut by a third. That means watching should be continuous rather than occasional, and evidence should be assembled before a publication appears, not scrambled together afterward.
The nine-month substantive examination period has not changed. The fifteen-day window to seek review after a refusal has not changed. China remains strictly first-to-file. The requirement to act through a Chinese agency has not changed either—new article number, same thinking.
After the revision, “Trademark Office” and “Trademark Review and Adjudication Board” (TRAB) disappear as statutory names, replaced throughout by “the trademark administrative department of the State Council.” The practical effect: any English-language guide that still describes procedures in terms of the TRAB is describing the world before 2027. It is also a quick way to date the material in your hands—ours included, which is why every page on this site carries a last-checked date.
Article 87 answers one question cleanly: trademarks registered before 2027-01-01 remain valid. What the law does not spell out is the procedural handover for applications pending at the changeover—for instance, which opposition period applies to a mark published in late 2026. That will be settled by the Implementing Regulations or an official ruling; until then, we would rather tell you “not yet decided” than guess. We keep watching the primary sources, and this page will be updated once the rule lands.
This article is general information, not legal advice on any specific case. Author: Huang Guowen, Director of the International Department; the content has been checked against the primary source linked above.
