You need a registration for the markets you sell in, and you need a Chinese one for the country you make in. Those are different registers answering different questions. Selling only overseas changes nothing about the factories, agents and squatters who see your brand in China every week, which is where this question usually ends.
Where a right has to exist, and for what
Brand owners who sell only abroad tend to think in one direction: their products go to Europe or North America, so their registrations should too. That is right for selling. It is not the whole picture, because your goods spend their first weeks of life in China.
| What you want to do | Where the right has to exist | Chinese mark needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Sell in the EU, US, UK or Australia | That market’s register | No |
| Sue a copyist who sells in your market | The market where they sell | No |
| Remove a listing on a Chinese wholesale platform | China | Yes |
| Stop an unauthorised shipment leaving China | China, and a recordal with its customs authority | Yes |
| Stop your factory registering the name | China, before the factory does | Yes |
| Hold the brand through a change of supplier | China | Yes |
The first two rows are the ones you already have. The last four are the ones that show up as a problem, and none of them is about your customers. They are about the country where the product is cut, sewn, printed, assembled and boxed.
Why manufacturing creates exposure that selling does not
When you sell in a market, you decide how visible you are: the listing, the advertising, the price. When you manufacture, visibility is not yours to control. The label artwork goes to a factory. The mould goes to a tool shop. A sample with your name on it goes to a trading company that is quoting a competitor. None of that is a breach by anyone; it is how the supply chain works, and each step adds a party that knows your brand before your first customer does.
China also settles priority by filing date rather than by use. In a first-to-use system, the earlier user has the stronger position. In China, the earlier applicant does, and the applicant does not have to be selling anything. So the calculation is not “do I sell there”; it is “who files first in the class I make in”.
The three costs of skipping it, ranked by how often we see them
- A replacement brand. If a squatter takes your name and will not sell, the cheapest answer is often a new name: new labels, new packaging, new website, new listings, and the marketing you have already paid for written off. Owners underestimate this one, because they compare it with a legal bill instead of with a rebrand.
- A delayed shipment. A registered third party with a customs recordal can have your container detained while you prove authorisation. Delivery dates do not move for disputes.
- A factory that holds the mark. A factory registration, or the threat of one, changes the balance in every later conversation about price, tooling and the next supplier.
Against those, the filing costs US$199 per class in the Essential plan with the CNIPA official fee of about US$39 included, US$299 in Standard with monitoring and a written re-examination assessment, and US$499 in Registered or Refunded for word marks with a full refund if CNIPA finally refuses on relative grounds within 15 months of filing. The full table is on the pricing page, and the plain cost-benefit version is in is a China trademark worth it.
What is genuinely different for a sell-only business
Two things, and they are worth saying so the advice is not one-sided.
The first is Class 35. If you will never run a shop, a pop-up or an online storefront, the retail services class is a defensive purchase rather than coverage of real use, and we usually leave it out for a manufacturer-exporter who only ships wholesale.
The second is reputation. A Chinese registration is also a defensive position against a Chinese party claiming you are the copyist. Where a factory or a trading company has filed, the brand’s own registration and its dated evidence of first use are what make the difference in an invalidation. That evidence is easier to build while the relationship is good.
How the decision usually goes in our files
| Your situation | What we usually recommend |
|---|---|
| One product, one factory, one market, under two years old | File one class, the one you make in. Skip the rest and revisit when the range widens |
| Several products in different classes, one branding | File the goods classes plus the packaging class where your box sits outside them |
| Selling wholesale to distributors abroad | Goods classes, no Class 35. Add monitoring |
| Designing and launching new products each season | Goods classes plus the design patent question on the same calendar |
| Already saw a lookalike listing or an approach from a stranger | Search immediately, then file in your own name the same week, before deciding anything else |
Send us the product, the class and the destination markets. We will search the CNIPA register free of charge and tell you which classes are actually worth filing. The wider reasoning is in the export manufacturing guide, the no-sales version of the same question in why register in China if you do not sell here, and the filing itself runs through our registration service.
Quick answers
Can I sell in the EU without a Chinese trademark?
Yes. Selling in a market needs a right in that market. The Chinese filing is about where your goods are made, not where they are sold.
My goods are made in China and sold only in the US. Which register matters?
Both, for different reasons. The US register lets you act against copyists who sell there. The Chinese register is what stops your brand being taken at source and what lets you act at the border when goods leave China.
What if I never register in China and nothing goes wrong?
Then you have saved US$199 per class, and you have accepted that the decision will be made by whoever files first. Some brands genuinely reach that conclusion. Our view is that it is worth making the decision deliberately rather than by default.
Is a Chinese registration enough to sell in China later?
It is the necessary first step, and it is the step that is already closed if someone else filed while you were not looking. Selling in China also brings product compliance and labelling requirements that are a separate matter.
Do I need Class 35 if I sell only through marketplaces abroad?
Not for a foreign marketplace. Class 35 covers retail and wholesale store services in China, so it matters if you open a Chinese storefront or sell to Chinese buyers, not if you sell to overseas customers from Chinese factories.
Sources
Article 31 of the PRC Trademark Law (first to file); Article 18 (agency requirement for foreign applicants); CNIPA fee schedule (270 RMB per class, about US$39); General Administration of Customs on recorded rights and export detention. General information, not legal advice. Registration outcomes rest with CNIPA and are never guaranteed.
Ask which classes your product actually needs
Tell us what you make, which class it sits in, and where you sell. We will search the register in those classes and send you a short risk note with a quote, free of charge. Start with a message or go straight to the registration service.
