The party most likely to register your brand in China is the one that already knows it: your manufacturer. Prevention is unglamorous and takes a week: file the mark in your own name, put three clauses in the agreement, and ask the factory in writing not to file. If it has already filed, there are four routes, and the date decides which one is open.
Why the factory, and not a stranger
Professional squatters work from public signals, trade fair lists, crowdfunding pages, new marketplace listings. Your factory works from information nobody else has. It knows your product names before you launch them, your packaging dielines, your volumes, your margins and your buyers. It knows when your second container ships and when your third one does not.
Filing a trademark in China costs the applicant about US$39 per class in official fees. There is no intent test at the filing stage, and CNIPA examines the application against the register rather than against your supply agreement. So the cost of the move is small, the timing is controllable, and the upside is a legal right over the name that pays your factory’s bills.
We also want to be fair to the majority of factories, which never do this and would be surprised to be suspected. The point is not that manufacturers are dishonest. It is that you have handed one company the strongest motive and the best information, and the register does not care about either.
When the filing usually happens
| Moment | What the factory sees | What protects you |
|---|---|---|
| Before the first purchase order, during quoting | Your name on sample bags, drawings and price requests, with no contract in place yet | A registration filed before you send samples, and an NNN agreement on the first contact |
| When volume grows | A brand worth something. Usually after two or three reorders, when the relationship feels permanent to you and optional to them | A registration already in your name, plus monitoring, because the filing will show up on the register |
| After a dispute or a switch to another factory | A reason to hold something over you: unpaid tooling, a lost account, a poached customer | The registration, the contract clauses, and the evidence that you were the first to use the name |
| When a competing buyer asks for the same product | The quickest way to say yes: supply under the brand name that is already filed | A registration plus a customs recordal, so the shipment is a detention rather than a lost sale |
The second row is the one that catches exporters who thought about this early and then let it go. Nothing goes wrong for two years, the relationship feels settled, and the filing happens in year three.
What a factory-held registration actually does to you
Owners often underestimate this, because the mark is their brand in every market that matters to them. Inside China, the register changes what is possible.
- It blocks your next factory. Your new supplier is now producing goods that carry a mark someone else registered here. Your supplier is exposed even if you are confident about your overseas rights.
- It supports a customs recordal. With the registration recorded, your own export shipments can be detained while you prove authorisation, which is precisely the hold a supplier wants over a customer.
- It closes the platform takedown door. If the factory lists your product on a Chinese platform, the complaint process asks for rights that are yours, and they are not.
- It complicates selling in China later. Any plan to enter the market, run a store or license the brand starts with a mark owned by someone else.
- It puts a price on your name. The demand usually arrives as a business proposal: a fee, a share, or a formal partnership, with the threat of use left unspoken.
The reverse is also true, which is why the first thing we recommend to any exporter is the filing itself. A registration in your own name turns all five of those from liabilities into tools, and it costs US$199 per class in the Essential plan, official fee included.
The prevention play, in order
- Search, then file, before the first sample leaves your office. The search is free with us and takes a day. The filing is what makes the register say your name.
- Keep the applicant as the brand owner. Not the trading company you also own, not a Chinese sourcing entity, not a distributor. One applicant, matching the party that owns the brand everywhere else.
- Put three clauses in the production agreement. See the table below. Generic “the buyer owns all intellectual property” language is not enough on its own, because it does not name the trademark or the tooling.
- Ask in writing, and keep the answer. A short message stating that the brand is your registered mark and that the factory may not apply for it. If there is ever a bad faith argument to make, that exchange is part of the evidence.
- Monitor the register. A factory application is published before it registers, and the three-month opposition window is the cheapest moment to act. Monitoring from us is US$399 per year.
- Control the artwork and the tooling. Label files, dielines, moulds and print plates are physical assets. Say who owns them, keep the latest versions on your side, and record the serial or registration numbers of moulds you paid for.
The three clauses that matter
| Clause | What it should say | Why it matters later |
|---|---|---|
| Trademark ownership | Names the marks, states that the buyer is the owner, and prohibits the supplier, its affiliates, its officers and its employees from applying for the marks or any confusingly similar mark, in China or anywhere else | This is the clause you show CNIPA or a court when you argue the filing was improper. Without it you are arguing from general principles |
| Tooling and artwork | States that moulds, print plates, dielines and label artwork remain the buyer’s property, identifies them by number where possible, and requires return or destruction on termination | The tooling is often what keeps a factory supplying your competitor, and it is what makes the switch to a new supplier expensive |
| No extra units and overruns | Prohibits production above the ordered quantity, prohibits sales of any unit other than to the buyer, and sets a liquidated figure or a return obligation if units appear elsewhere | Overruns are the most common source of unauthorised goods, and the source of listings under your name |
Two practical notes on how this plays out in China. First, a contract is enforced by a Chinese court under Chinese law, so the governing law and the dispute forum matter as much as the clause text. Second, no clause substitutes for the registration. A contract claim is a case with evidence and costs; a registration is a right that customs, platforms and complaint desks act on without a hearing. The contract half is covered in more detail in the private label checklist.
Signs to take seriously
In our files, the warning arrives before the problem does.
- The helpful message: the factory offers to register the label for you, or asks whether you have registered it in China and whether it should. This is the loudest signal there is.
- Requests for brand documents it does not need: a copy of your overseas certificate, brand guidelines, or a letter confirming you authorise production under the mark.
- A related entity filing near your name. Same town, same surname, a company registered the month you placed the second order, or a mark one letter away from yours.
- Extra units appearing on Chinese platforms, at prices no distributor could offer.
- A sudden interest in your plans: which markets, which volumes, when the launch is.
If any of these arrive, search the register in your classes immediately. Ours is free of charge, and a filing that appears in the last three months is the cheapest thing you will ever fix.
If the factory has already filed
Four routes exist, and which are open is decided by dates and by what the factory is doing with the mark. We search first, then recommend, because guessing at this stage wastes money.
| Route | Open when | Realistic difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Opposition | The application was published for opposition within the last three months | Lowest of the four, and the window is fixed |
| Invalidation on bad faith grounds | The factory knew of your use, and you can evidence the relationship, the artwork and the dates. Article 32 read with Article 45 | Moderate. Evidence drives the outcome, and there is no five-year limit for bad faith |
| Non-use cancellation | Three years have passed since registration and the factory is not genuinely using the mark for the goods it covers, under Article 49 | Moderate, and sometimes simply the fastest way to clear the register |
| Purchase and assignment | Always, in the sense that the other side may sell. Sometimes the cheapest answer when the relationship has to survive | Commercial rather than legal. The price reflects what the other side thinks the mark is worth to you |
While any of that is running, do three things on your side. Preserve the evidence in a form that can be used: dated correspondence, artwork files with metadata, invoices, bill of lading, and photographs of the booth or the launch. Switch the flow of documents so new artwork does not keep reaching the factory. And take a decision about the commercial relationship, because in most of these files the case and the supplier relationship end at the same time. Our guide to squatting in China sets out the same routes from the receiving end, and the export manufacturing guide covers the filing that prevents the whole situation, with the contract side in whether an OEM contract is enough.
One file, start to finish
Details changed, sequence not.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Month 0 | A homewares brand places a second order with a factory in Zhejiang. The label artwork went over by email in month 0, with nothing signed |
| Month 9 | Volumes are up. The factory’s sister company files the brand name in Class 21, filing date recorded |
| Month 12 | The brand asks us for a clearance search ahead of a new product. The search finds the sister company’s application, published for opposition six weeks earlier |
| Month 12, week 2 | Opposition is filed inside the three-month window, supported by the email trail, the artwork metadata and the purchase orders. A filing in the brand’s own name goes in on the same day, so the mark is protected either way |
| Month 13 | The factory is told that the brand holds its own application and that the opposition is running. The commercial conversation changes course within a week |
| Month 20 and beyond | The opposed application is decided on the evidence, and the brand’s own registration proceeds to grant. Customs recordal follows |
Two weeks decided that file. Six weeks later and the opposition window would have been closed, leaving invalidation or a purchase as the options.
Quick answers
Can my factory register my brand name in China?
Nothing prevents it from trying. The application costs it about US$39 per class and CNIPA does not check its intentions. Whether it keeps the registration depends on whether you oppose in time or invalidate it later.
Is a confidentiality agreement enough?
No. It gives you a contract claim, which is a case. It does not put a right on the register, cannot be recorded at customs, and cannot support a platform takedown.
Should the mark be registered in my name or in a Chinese company I own?
In the name of the brand owner. A Chinese entity adds a second problem, because the entity itself becomes the owner of the right, and moving a registration between entities later means an assignment request and a fee.
How do I know if my factory has filed my name?
Search the CNIPA register in the classes you make in, and repeat the search every few months. Applications are published before they are registered, which is what gives you the three-month opposition window. Monitoring from us covers that check for US$399 per year.
What if the factory says it will simply hand the registration over?
Get it assigned in writing through CNIPA, not promised. Until the register shows your name, the right is theirs, and promises are worth what you can enforce.
Do I still need the filing if I am about to change factories?
Especially then. Switching suppliers means a new manufacturer looks at your artwork, and your old one has a reason to hold something. The filing is what makes the second supplier safe to work with.
Sources
Articles 31, 32, 45 and 49 of the PRC Trademark Law (first to file, prior rights and bad faith, invalidation, non-use cancellation); Article 33 on the three-month opposition window; CNIPA fee schedule (270 RMB per class, about US$39); General Administration of Customs on recordal. General information, not legal advice. Outcomes depend on the evidence and the facts of each case and rest with CNIPA and the courts. ChinaIPMark coordinates the work; filings are submitted by a CNIPA-registered agency.
Search the register before you send the next sample
Send us the brand name, the product and the class you make in. We will check whether your factory, its affiliates or anyone else has already filed, tell you how long the opposition window still has in it, and quote a filing in your own name. The search costs nothing. The filing starts at US$199 per class, and the numbers are on the pricing page. Tell us through contact and we reply within 24 hours.
