A logo is a separate trademark from the brand name, and it needs its own application. If your budget only covers one filing, do the word mark first: it covers the name in any typeface, in any colour, on any packaging. Then file the logo separately if the visual asset is doing real work for you.
Two marks, not one
Brand owners talk about “the brand” as one thing. On the register it is at least two, and they protect different aspects of it.
| What you file | What it protects | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Word mark, for example your brand spelled in plain capitals | The name itself, in any typeface, colour or layout. Someone using your brand in a different font, in lower case or with a graphic flourish is still within reach | The specific look of your logo as an asset in its own right, and the distinctive device elements in it |
| Figurative mark, the logo image as drawn | The visual identity: the arrangement, the device elements, the typeface and the colour treatment as filed | A third party using the pure name without your visual treatment, if the comparison comes down to the name alone |
| Chinese word mark, if your packaging carries Chinese characters | The characters you actually use, which is the version most likely to be filed by someone else and the version a Chinese buyer recognises | Coverage of the Latin version, and the other way round |
For an exporter, the working order is straightforward. The word mark is the cheapest, broadest and most useful right you can hold: it survives a rebrand of the visual identity, it is what a squatter copies, and it is what customs and platform complaint forms ask for. The logo comes second, unless the logo is the business, as it is for some food, apparel and cosmetics brands.
Why the sequence matters when you manufacture here
Two specific situations come up in nearly every OEM file.
The first is the factory that has your artwork. Dielines, print files, embroidery digitising, embossing plates: all of them are your logo in a form someone else can reuse. A figurative registration gives you a right over that visual asset, distinct from the name, and it is what makes a print file in the wrong hands an infringement rather than an argument about a contract.
The second is the packaging. Your logo is on the box, the bag and the insert, and packaging frequently sits in a class outside your goods class. That is not a defensive filing; it is coverage of where the mark is genuinely used, which is the strongest kind of application to hold. Class selection is set out in the classes guide, and the wider filing plan for an exporter is in the export manufacturing guide.
One limitation you must know before choosing a plan
Our Registered or Refunded plan covers word marks only, at US$499 per class, and refunds everything you paid, the official fee included, where CNIPA finally refuses the application on relative grounds within 15 months. A figurative mark is outside that plan, and so is a refusal on absolute grounds, and so is a partial refusal.
That is not a reason to avoid logo filings. It is a reason to make the choice deliberately: if you want the guarantee-like plan, file the word mark on it and treat the logo as a separate application on Essential or Standard. The boundaries are on the registration page, and we will spell out which of your planned filings falls where before you pay anything.
What CNIPA needs for a logo application
| Item | Requirement in practice | Where clients go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| The mark image | A clean JPG reproduction, no background clutter, at a resolution comfortably inside the current online filing limits, which sit in the range of 400 by 400 up to 1,500 by 1,500 pixels and under 200 KB | A screenshot from a website, a low resolution export from the brand PDF, or a photo of a printed label |
| Colour or black and white | Black and white filings are the usual choice, because they cover the mark in any colour and let you change packaging without refiling. A colour filing protects the colour combination as claimed | Filing the version you use today in colour, which can narrow what you own to that one colour combination |
| Description of the mark | Where the mark contains stylised text, device elements or colour, a short description is filed with the application | Sending only a name and expecting the stylised version to be covered |
| Goods and services | The classes and items the mark is used on, up to ten items per class, with each further item at US$10 | Copying the goods list from a different product, which produces a registration that does not match the goods on the pallet |
| Power of attorney | Signed by the applicant, since an applicant without a Chinese address must act through a licensed Chinese agency under Article 18 | Leaving the signature until the day of filing and losing a week |
We prepare the image, the descriptions and the goods lists, and we send the client a single page to approve before the applications go in. Asking for approval on one page costs a day; correcting a filed application costs months.
The Chinese-language version of your logo
If your packaging carries Chinese characters, treat that version as a mark in its own right. File the characters, not just the Latin logo, and file them as a word mark if they are used in plain type as well as inside a device.
There are two reasons. The practical one is that the Chinese version is what a Chinese buyer recognises, and it is what a competitor will copy. The legal one is that Chinese examination compares marks on sound as well as on sight, so a Chinese transliteration of your brand used by someone else can be cited as a similar mark, in ways that turn on the reading rather than the spelling. Where a Latin mark is short and pronounceable, its likely Chinese readings are a real part of the risk picture, and we search them as a matter of course before recommending a filing. If a Chinese name is planned for the product, the sensible move is to file it early, because it is the version most likely to be taken.
What a logo filing costs
| Filing | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Word mark, Essential | US$199 per class | Official fee of US$39 included. Search, goods list, translation, licensed filing, correction notices |
| Word mark, Registered or Refunded | US$499 per class | Word marks only, relative grounds, final refusal within 15 months of filing |
| Logo, figurative mark | From US$199 per class | Outside the refund plan. Image preparation, description and goods list included |
| Chinese word mark | From US$199 per class | Treated as its own mark, with its own search that includes the likely Chinese readings |
| Extra items beyond ten in a class | US$10 each | Includes the CNIPA charge of 27 RMB per item |
Three filings for one brand, the name, the logo and the Chinese version, come to US$597 in Essential across three classes. That is a real number, and for a brand with a modest first year it is fair to ask which one to do now. We recommend the word mark, then the Chinese version once the name is settled, then the logo when the visual identity stops changing. Filing a logo in a month when the brand is being refreshed is money spent on a mark you are about to abandon.
Worked example
An apparel brand, details changed.
| Step | What we filed | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Word mark in Class 25, black and white, in the brand owner’s name | The name in any typeface. This is the right that matters against a squatter |
| 2 | Figurative mark in Class 25, from the design agency’s vector file rather than a screenshot | The label artwork and the embroidered logo, which the factory handles daily |
| 3 | Chinese word mark in Class 25, plus Class 18 for the bags the brand already sells | The characters on the hangtag, and the adjacent goods class where the name is genuinely used |
| 4 | Not filed: Class 35 for a storefront the brand may open in two years | Monitoring instead. When a storefront is real, the class is still there to file |
The brand spent on three classes plus monitoring, and skipped the speculative one. The file took six days from the first message to the application numbers, and the client approved all three proposed goods lists on a single page.
Quick answers
Do I really need to file the logo separately from the name?
If you want the logo itself protected as a visual asset, yes. A word mark covers the name, not the drawing. Many brands start with the word mark and add the logo later, which is a reasonable order when money is tight.
Should I file the logo in colour?
Usually not. A black and white filing covers the mark across colour versions and lets you change packaging without refiling. File in colour only if the colour combination is the identity and you want to claim it specifically.
Can I file a screenshot of my logo from my website?
You can upload it, and the reproduction will often be refused or asked to be corrected, which costs weeks. Send us the vector file or a high resolution export and the image passes first time.
Does the refund plan cover a logo?
No. Registered or Refunded applies to word marks, and to a final refusal on relative grounds within 15 months of filing. Logo marks, partial refusals and absolute grounds refusals are outside it.
Is the logo also protected by copyright?
The artwork is a copyright work as well as a trademark, and a copyright record can be useful evidence of authorship. For stopping goods, listings and shipments, the trademark is the instrument that customs, marketplaces and complaint desks act on.
How many classes does a logo filing need?
As many as the logo genuinely appears on, which for an exporter is usually the goods class plus the packaging class where the box sits in a different class. Each class is a separate application and a separate fee.
Sources
Article 18 of the PRC Trademark Law (agency requirement for applicants without a Chinese address); Articles 8 and 9 on what can be registered and what a registered mark gives you; CNIPA and its fee schedule (270 RMB per class, about US$39) for filing requirements and official fees; WIPO, Nice Classification for goods and services classes. General information, not legal advice. Examination outcomes rest with CNIPA, and registration is never guaranteed. ChinaIPMark coordinates the work; filings are submitted by a CNIPA-registered agency.
Send us the logo file and the name
Send the vector file or a high resolution export of the logo, the brand name, and where both appear, on the product, the packaging, the hangtag. We will run the search in the relevant classes, tell you which filings we would do first, and quote them on one page. The name check costs nothing, and we will say plainly if the logo is not worth filing yet. Filing runs through the registration service, prices are on the pricing page, and we reply within 24 hours of a message.
