Roughly one in three China trademark applications receives a refusal. If you want to fight it, you have 15 days from receiving the notice to file a review with CNIPA, and a well-prepared response can overturn a meaningful share of initial refusals.
Why China trademarks get refused
- Conflicts with an earlier identical or similar mark in the same class
- Descriptiveness: the mark just describes the goods or services
- Lack of distinctiveness, or bad-faith filings
- Absolute grounds, such as marks that mislead or offend
The 15-day window is real
Under the Chinese Trademark Law, the review application must be filed within 15 days of receiving the refusal notice. Miss it and the refusal becomes final. Deadlines like this are why our Standard and Brand Protection plans include one office action response handled by the licensed agency.
What a review actually does
The review is not a rubber stamp. We prepare arguments and, where useful, evidence of use and acquired distinctiveness. In our experience, the outcome depends far more on how the response is built than on luck. If the refusal was based on a similar mark that has since been abandoned, a good response can turn the case around completely.
When a refusal is a dead end
Some refusals cannot be fixed: if the mark is descriptive of the goods, no argument will make it registrable. In those cases we tell you honestly and help you choose a stronger name or a different class, instead of charging you to repeat a losing argument. Send us the refusal notice and we will tell you what the odds really are.
