You need a Chinese registration the moment a factory outside your control can see your brand. That is true on day one of quoting. The risks are not abstract: they are overruns, tooling, filings by the factory’s affiliate, and a container that cannot move. Here is what each one looks like and what it costs.
The situation that creates the risk
Your brand is visible in China whenever any of these is true. A factory is quoting your product. A tool shop has your mould. A trading company is sampling your item. A designer or a print house holds your artwork. A marketplace listing carries your name from a Chinese seller you have never met. If even one of those applies, you are in the situation this cluster is about, and the question is not whether to file but when.
Risk one: overruns leaving under your name
Producing a little extra is a normal habit in manufacturing, and the extra units usually find a buyer. If they leave China under your brand, you have goods competing with yours at a price you cannot match, and buyers who cannot tell the difference.
What changes when you hold the registration: the shipment becomes a detention. You record the mark with customs, and a consignment under your name without your authorisation can be stopped at the port. That is a border measure, not a court case, and it operates in days rather than months. Recordal is US$199 with us and carries no official fee.
Risk two: the tooling moves
Moulds, print plates, dies and embroidery files are the physical assets that make your product. They sit with a factory that may take on other customers, change ownership, or simply stop prioritising you.
A trademark does not protect a mould. What protects the mould is a clause that names it as your property and identifies it, by serial number where you can. What the trademark protects is the name that appears on the goods the mould produces, and that is the part the factory cannot take away. We cover the drafting in whether an OEM contract is enough.
Risk three: the factory’s affiliate files your name
This is the version we see most often. Not the factory itself, but a related company, a trading arm, the owner’s spouse, or a former employee who set up a new entity the month after they left.
Filing costs that party about US$39 in official fees per class, CNIPA does not ask why, and the application is examined against the register rather than against your purchase orders. The moment it registers, it holds a right that can be used at customs, against your next supplier, and against you.
Risk four: a copycat with no relationship to you
Not every risk comes from your supply chain. Chinese wholesale platforms carry English-language listings aimed at overseas buyers, and a competing seller can list your product under your name. The takedown process asks for a registration or application number, which is the price of admission and the thing you do not have.
What it costs, and what each risk costs instead
| Risk | Cost if you hold a registration | Cost without one |
|---|---|---|
| Overrun shipment under your name | US$199 recordal. Detention and a notice | Lost sales and no visibility. Nothing to record |
| Factory affiliate files the mark | Monitoring at US$399 a year finds it inside the three-month opposition window | Invalidation or a purchase. Months to years, with the price set by the other side |
| Tooling in the wrong hands | Contract clause plus the registration, both in place before the first order | A contract claim with the tooling already moving |
| Listing under your name on a Chinese platform | Complaint filed with the registration number | Report rejected, listing stays up |
| Selling the business or taking investment | Clean title across the classes you make in | A warranty item, or a discount |
On the filing itself: US$199 per class in Essential with the CNIPA official fee of about US$39 included, US$299 in Standard, 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. All on the pricing page.
What we would do this week, in this situation
- Search the CNIPA register in the class you make in. Ours is free and takes a day. If a factory affiliate has already filed, you will see it, and the clock on the opposition window matters from that moment.
- File in your own name, in the classes you actually use, before the next sample leaves the office.
- Put the three clauses in the agreement: named marks, a filing prohibition, and tooling ownership.
- Ask the factory in writing not to file, and keep the reply. If a bad faith argument is ever needed, that exchange is part of it.
- Add monitoring once the certificate issues, so a later filing is a decision rather than a surprise.
The same situation is described from other angles in the export manufacturing guide, stopping a manufacturer from taking your brand and what happens without a China trademark.
Quick answers
Is this risk only for brands that sell in China?
No. Every risk above is about where the goods are made and who can see the brand there. Selling in China adds a different set of risks, and it is not what makes these ones apply.
How quickly can a risk become a problem?
Comparing the two clocks: a filing takes a few days to lodge and about four months to be examined, while a squatter can file any day it likes. That is the argument for filing before the relationship starts rather than after it is going well.
What if the factory says it has already filed and will transfer it?
Get the assignment filed through CNIPA rather than promised, and do not pay against a promise. Where the filing is recent, an opposition may be running in parallel, which changes the negotiating position.
We are already three years into the relationship. Is it too late?
No, and it is the cheapest moment available to you, because nothing has gone wrong yet. The search tells you whether it has.
Do I need a design patent as well?
If the shape of the product is the asset, yes. Trademarks protect the name and the logo; design patents protect the look, and they are filed on separate clocks. The comparison is in trademark versus design patent.
Sources
Articles 31 and 32 of the PRC Trademark Law (first to file, prior rights and bad faith); Article 33 on the three-month opposition window; CNIPA fee schedule (270 RMB per class, about US$39); General Administration of Customs on recordal and export detention. General information, not legal advice, and outcomes rest with CNIPA, the customs authority and the courts.
Find out which of these four applies to you
Send us the brand name, the product and the class you make in. We will search the register, tell you whether anything has already been filed by a party connected to your supply chain, and quote the filing. The search is free, and we answer within 24 hours of your message.
