If every unit you make in China ships abroad, you still need a China trademark, and the reason is not Chinese consumers. It is the supply chain around you: factories, sourcing agents and squatters who file names for a living. Here is when filing earns its fee, and when you can reasonably wait.
Why the answer has little to do with Chinese shoppers
Most brand owners in your position assume the question is about customers. No customers in China, no need for a Chinese registration. That would be true in a system where registration only matters if you sell. China does not work that way. Registration matters because you manufacture, and manufacturing puts your name in front of people who can file it.
China runs on first to file. Under Article 31 of the Trademark Law, when two applicants want the same or a similar mark for the same or similar goods, the one who filed first gets the preliminary approval. Nobody at CNIPA asks who used the brand, who designed the label, or who paid for the tooling. The register records a date and a class.
A trademark is also the key that opens everything else you might later want: customs recordal at the border, takedowns on Chinese marketplaces, a complaint at a trade fair, and the standing to ask a court for an injunction. Without a registration, most of those doors stay shut. That is the whole argument, and it does not depend on a single unit being sold inside China.
What “export only” changes, and what it does not
Export-only production does reduce your exposure in one specific way, and it is worth understanding precisely, because clients often overrate it.
| Risk | Export-only production | Same goods sold in China |
|---|---|---|
| A third party sues you for using a mark they registered here | Lower. Chinese courts have accepted that pure OEM production for export does not by itself infringe, though it is decided case by case | Higher. Selling in China is ordinary trademark use |
| Someone files your brand name at CNIPA before you do | Unchanged. Filing is cheap and no domestic sales are needed | Unchanged |
| Your factory, its trading arm, or an ex-employee registers your name | Unchanged, and this is the most common scenario we see | Unchanged |
| A registered owner records its mark with customs and your shipment is detained | Higher than owners expect. China Customs enforces recorded rights on exports as well as imports | Higher still |
| Chinese platforms carry lookalike listings under your name | Unchanged, and those listings are visible to your overseas buyers too | Unchanged |
Read the second column again. Only the first row improves when you keep every unit out of mainland China. The other four rows are about who holds the right, not about where the goods go. That is why “we only export” is not on its own a reason to skip filing.
The four things that actually happen without a registration
1. Someone files your name, and the register says they are first
This is the scenario the whole system rewards. Your name appears on a trade fair booth, a crowdfunding page, an Amazon listing, a sample bag, or the factory’s own website, and a filing follows within weeks. Filing a trademark in China costs the applicant roughly US$39 in official fees per class. There is no intent test at the filing stage. The application is examined against the register, and if your name is free, it proceeds.
What that costs you afterwards is the part worth pricing. Getting a squatted mark back means an opposition if you catch it during the three-month publication window, an invalidation, a non-use cancellation after three years, or a purchase. Each of those is a case, not a form, and each costs several times what the original filing would have. We go through the routes in trademark squatting in China.
2. Your own factory becomes the obstacle
The party closest to your brand is not a stranger. It has seen your label artwork, your packaging dielines, your product names and your buyer list. When the relationship sours, or simply when a buyer asks it for the same product under your name, the registration it holds is a legal weapon against you. It can also be used against your next supplier, and against you at customs.
This is not a rare edge case. In our files, the factory, its affiliate or a former employee is behind more brand problems than professional squatters are. The prevention is unglamorous: file first, file in the classes you actually make in, and keep the registration in your own name rather than the factory’s.
3. Customs detains your shipment, not theirs
China Customs acts on intellectual property rights recorded with it, and its mandate covers exports as well as imports. If a third party holds a registration for a name close to yours and has recorded it, consignments leaving Chinese ports can be stopped while you prove you are authorised. Your goods sit in a bonded area while the clock runs on your delivery dates.
Recording your own right is the countermeasure, and it is the reason customs recordal belongs in this conversation at all. It has no official fee, it lasts as long as the underlying registration, and we file it for US$199. The mechanics are in China customs recordal and in the customs section below.
4. Your name circulates on Chinese platforms you never opened
Chinese wholesale platforms carry listings in English for overseas buyers. A factory that makes your product can list the same item under your brand name, price it lower, and reach your own customers. Without a registration you cannot file the complaint. With one, you can, and the listing usually comes down.
For sellers on Amazon, Temu, Shein and eBay, the same registration also does double duty, because marketplace brand tools ask for it. We cover that in Amazon Brand Registry and in the Temu and Shein note.
The OEM defence is real, and it is not a plan
You may have read that pure OEM production for export never infringes, so a Chinese registration is unnecessary. The first half of that sentence has a basis. The second half does not.
In the 2014 PRETUL case, the Supreme People’s Court held that where goods are manufactured in China for a foreign brand owner, are marked for export, are not sold in the Chinese market, and create no likelihood of confusion among Chinese consumers, the OEM production does not by itself constitute trademark infringement. Later decisions have refined that position rather than reversed it, and the reasoning has held. If a Chinese registrant ever came after you for making your own goods under your own brand, this line of authority is the defence you would want.
Four limits stop it from being a substitute for filing.
- It is decided case by case. The exception narrows where the conflicting Chinese mark has a real domestic presence, is well known, or where the OEM conduct damages the registrant’s interests here. You would be arguing, not resting on a rule.
- It does not restrain anyone. The defence protects you if you are sued. It gives you nothing to sue with, nothing to record at customs, and nothing to file a platform complaint with.
- Customs does not apply it. A detention at the border is an administrative step. You prove authorisation or you litigate. Either way the container is not moving.
- It does not cover the products you might want to sell here later. Brands change plans. A Chinese mark filed at the start costs US$199 in the Essential plan. Rebuilding a position in a taken class later does not.
Our position, stated plainly: the OEM defence is worth knowing about, and worth documenting your supply chain for. It is not a reason to leave the register to whoever files first.
Do you need a Chinese company to own the mark?
No. A foreign individual or company can own a Chinese trademark. You do not need a Chinese entity, a joint venture or a local shareholder, and putting the registration inside a Chinese company you do not control is a mistake we occasionally have to unpick.
The one requirement is procedural. Under Article 18 of the Trademark Law, an applicant with no domicile or business presence in China must appoint a Chinese trademark agency to act for it. That is why filings reach CNIPA through a licensed agency, and it is also why a self-service portal account will not get you to the finish line.
Two related points that come up in almost every OEM file:
- The applicant should be the brand owner. If the mark is registered to your trading company, your distributor or your manufacturer, that entity controls the right, whatever your contract says. Keep the applicant identical to the party that owns the brand abroad.
- Your name and address must be current. A registration at an old address still works, but every later step, including renewal and customs recordal, gets slower. Changing the applicant name or address is a filed request and costs US$199 from us.
What to file: classes and the goods list
For an exporter, the classes are driven by what you make, not by where you sell. Three groups matter, and the mix depends on your product.
| Class group | Why an exporter files it | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| The goods class you manufacture in | This is the class the factory, the copycat and the customs recordal all live in. It is the non-negotiable one. | Class 25 clothing, Class 9 electronics, Class 3 cosmetics, Class 21 kitchenware |
| Adjacent goods classes | Covers the extensions you are already prototyping or the accessories that share your packaging | Class 18 bags next to Class 25 apparel; Class 11 lighting next to Class 21 homeware |
| Class 35 services | Covers retail and wholesale store services, which matter if you ever run a shop, a pop-up or an online storefront, and which squatters use to fence in a brand | Class 35 retail services for clothing, cosmetics, electronics |
Each class is a separate Chinese application, each is charged separately, and each covers up to ten items in the goods list. Items eleven and onwards are US$10 each, which includes the CNIPA charge of 27 RMB per item. We plan the lists item by item before filing, because the list is what the registration actually protects. Class selection is set out in more detail in the China trademark classes guide.
Does stock sitting in a Chinese warehouse count as use?
This one gets asked a lot by sellers who keep inventory near the port, and the answer turns on where the goods are and what is being offered.
Storing goods in a bonded warehouse, a free trade zone warehouse or an export supervised warehouse, waiting for a shipping window or a consolidation, is a customs status, not a sale to Chinese customers. Making your goods there for your own order abroad does not put them on the Chinese market, and it keeps your position closer to the OEM situation described above.
What changes the analysis is offering the goods in China: listing them on a Chinese platform, quoting Chinese buyers, or holding a sale from the warehouse. At that point you are in the domestic market on your own facts, and the export-only reasoning stops helping. If your stock arrangement is unusual, bonded consignment, a fulfilment partner inside a free trade zone, or goods held under a third party’s name, tell us the structure before you plan the filing. The paperwork that describes the arrangement is often as important as the registration itself, and we build that into the market entry checklist for clients who are heading that way.
What it costs, and how long it takes
Fees are per class and per mark, and the CNIPA official fee is inside the price rather than added to it. The official fee is 270 RMB per class, about US$39, and it covers the first ten items in the list.
| Item | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | US$199 per class | Search of CNIPA records, written risk note, classes and goods list, English translation, licensed agency filing, correction notices handled |
| Standard | US$299 per class | Adds English progress updates, 12 months of basic post-registration monitoring and a written re-examination assessment if the mark is refused |
| Registered or Refunded | US$499 per class | Word marks only. Refunds 100% of what you paid, the official fee included, if CNIPA finally refuses on relative grounds within 15 months of filing |
| Extra items in a class | US$10 each | Beyond the first ten items, including the CNIPA charge of 27 RMB per item |
| Customs recordal | US$199 | No official fee. Runs with the registration |
| Monitoring | US$399 per year | Watching later filings that sit close to your mark |
On timing, CNIPA examines a trademark application in about four months, and registration is typically complete about eight months after filing when nothing is refused and no opposition is filed. The examination period is 2026 practice and can move. Full detail is on the timeline page and the pricing page.
Note the shape of the refund plan before you choose it. It applies to word marks, it applies when the decision is a final refusal on relative grounds, and it applies within 15 months of filing. A logo, a partial refusal or an absolute-grounds refusal is out of scope. If you are filing a word mark and want the guarantee-like option, it is the one to pick, and the boundaries are on the trademark registration page.
One file, from enquiry to certificate
Details changed, sequence not.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | A leather goods brand exporting to the EU asks whether it needs a China mark. Its factory in Guangdong has just asked for permission to “register the label to protect the brand for us”, which is the signal you never want to receive |
| Day 2 | We search the CNIPA register for the word mark in Classes 18 and 25, find two similar marks in Class 25, and send the risk note with the goods lists |
| Day 4 | The client drops a Class 25 item that sits closest to one of the neighbours, signs the power of attorney, pays the invoice for two classes |
| Day 6 | Two applications are filed, application numbers are sent to the client the same day |
| Day 7 | The factory is told in writing that the brand is registered in the client’s name and that it may not file for the mark |
| About month 4 | CNIPA examination is complete with no refusal |
| About month 8 | Registration certificates issue. Customs recordal follows, and the client adds monitoring |
The interesting part of that file is day 7. The filing itself takes a week from enquiry. What the registration bought the client was a sentence to send the factory.
When you can reasonably wait
We are not going to tell you that every exporter needs a filing tomorrow, because it is not true, and a client who files on that basis ends up paying for a right they never use.
- You are not the brand. If your mark is the same as your customer’s and the customer is the brand owner, the filing belongs with the customer, not with you.
- The name is a supplier name, not a brand. Companies whose name is genuinely their corporate name in a regulated format should take advice before spending on mark protection for it.
- You have no intention of enforcing it. A registration you would never use at customs, in a platform complaint or against a copycat is a filing fee with no return. Be honest about this one; it is a legitimate answer.
In the third case the useful move is not to skip the search. It is to record what is already on the register in your classes, so you know what you are living next to, and to revisit the decision when a launched product or a real customer relationship makes the name worth protecting. The cost-benefit framing is in is a China trademark worth it.
Checklist before you send a label to your factory
- Search your word mark in the classes you actually manufacture in, before tooling and before the label goes to print.
- Confirm the applicant will be the brand owner abroad, not the factory and not a local trading entity.
- Decide the classes from the product, not the destination market, and add Class 35 if a storefront is anywhere on the roadmap.
- Put the confidentiality, no-extra-run and IP-ownership clauses in the production agreement as well as filing the mark.
- Ask the factory in writing not to file the mark, and keep that message on file. It matters if bad faith later has to be argued.
The contract half of that list is its own subject, and we cover it in the private label checklist and in what to do about extra units.
Quick answers
Do I need a China trademark if I never sell in China?
You do not need it in order to sell. You need it because your name, your packaging and your product are visible to people who can file it here, and because a registration is what customs, marketplaces and courts ask for.
My overseas registration is older. Does that help in China?
Not by itself. Trademark rights are territorial. An older US or EU registration does not stop a later Chinese filing, unless you use it as the basis of a priority claim within six months of that first filing, or as evidence in a bad faith case.
Can my factory register my brand name?
Nothing at the filing stage stops it. CNIPA does not check intent when it receives the application. If the filing is refused or later invalidated, it is because you raised the case and proved it.
Is one class enough?
For many exporters, one class is enough to cover the product they make. It is not enough if the brand also appears on packaging that sits in another class, or if a storefront is planned. Which is why the goods list matters as much as the class count.
What happens if I file late and someone is already there?
You look at whether the mark was published within the last three months, whether it is registered and unused for three years, whether bad faith can be argued, and what a commercial solution would cost. None of those is a form you fill in. They are cases with costs attached.
Does registering in China protect my design too?
No. A trademark covers the name and the logo. The shape of the product, the packaging or the pattern is a design patent question, and it is filed on a separate clock. The comparison is in trademark versus design patent.
Going deeper on one piece of this
Each of these takes one question and answers it in full, in the same order a file usually runs. Whether an overseas registration helps at all, in American, European and British marks in China. What happens if you skip the filing, in the five consequences. The supplier scenario, in stopping a manufacturer from taking your brand. The border, in whether customs recordal needs a trademark. The exhibition season, in Canton Fair exhibitors. Fixtures you might hold without using, in defensive filings. The supplier agreement, in whether an OEM contract is enough. And the visual asset, in protecting your logo.
Sources
Articles 18 and 31 of the PRC Trademark Law (agency requirement for foreign applicants, first to file); Supreme People’s Court, PRETUL, (2014) Min Ti Zi No. 8, and subsequent decisions refining the OEM position; CNIPA and its fee schedule (270 RMB per class, about US$39); General Administration of Customs for recordal and border enforcement. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Examination and enforcement outcomes rest with CNIPA and with the courts, and registration is never guaranteed. ChinaIPMark coordinates the work; filings are submitted by a CNIPA-registered agency.
Find out whether your class is already taken
Send us the brand name and the product you make in China. We will search the CNIPA register in the classes that matter, tell you what sits near your mark, and quote the filing without charging for the search. If you already know the name is blocked, we will tell you what the realistic routes are before you spend anything. Filing runs through our China trademark registration service, the numbers are on the pricing page, and a quote follows within 24 hours of your message.
