CNIPA's answers on non-use responses and evidence

A trademark lives through use. If a mark is not used after registration, it cannot serve its purpose, and it also blocks others with a genuine need from registering and using it, wasting limited trademark resources and harming economic development.

Use of a mark and the continued existence of its owner are not the same thing.

Under the latest Trademark Examination and Adjudication Guidelines, the applicant must set out specific grounds, describing the three consecutive years of non-use of the mark, and list the evidence from its preliminary investigation.

Yes.

Yes.

When a non-use cancellation is filed against a mark, the Trademark Office, once it accepts the application, sends the owner a response notice (the Notice to Provide Evidence of Use). After receiving the notice, the owner must respond with use evidence within the statutory period. Having received the evidence, the Office decides, based on its validity, whether the mark stays valid or is cancelled. There is no fee for responding.

It will be cancelled if there is no response.

Yes. When the Trademark Office receives a cancellation application that meets the conditions for acceptance, it sends the applicant an acceptance notice and sends the owner the Notice to Provide Evidence of Use.

If the returned document is collected within one month of the notice of returned mail, the response period runs from the date of collection. If it is not collected within one month, it is treated as served 30 days from the date of that notice, and the response period starts.

You can respond as normal; it has no effect.

You can go directly to a different agent for the response.

There is no fixed format. Simply respond as the notice requires.

You can provide the sales records from the shop's back end and materials showing that the owner opened the shop on Taobao. Notarization is not required.

You can submit originals or scans of originals.

Details of goods and unit prices can be masked. The final amount cannot.

They cannot be returned.

The evidence cannot be provided. There is no such procedure.

Use of a mark includes use on the outer packaging, containers or labels of goods, or on tags attached to goods, product instructions, brochures and the like. As long as it is used on the product packaging, it is use of the mark, whether there is one mark or several.

Yes, as long as it falls within the specified period, which in that case was September 16, 2017 to September 15, 2020.

The current holder files the response with use evidence, and may submit the previous owner's evidence of use in the three years.

No. It is the most recent three years within the mark's term. If an assignment has been filed, you can contact the assignor to submit evidence of use from before the assignment.

Yes.

The respondent is still the company as registered. Because it has been dissolved, the power of attorney can be signed instead of sealed. The evidence can concern the related company, but there must be a license agreement or authorization with it.

A license contract signed by both parties is recognized.

An application can be filed; there is no time limit.

It will not be rejected, and a mark is not limited to one case at a time.

The two cases each need a response with use evidence, but the party may also declare that it relies on the evidence from the earlier case:

Where the party has already filed use evidence in the earlier case and it can prove use in the present case, it need not be filed again. The earlier evidence must match or overlap with the present case in time of use, goods or services, and the sign used.

A party relying on the earlier evidence must return, with the Notice to Provide Evidence of Use, a written statement giving the earlier case's application number and the mark's registration number so the examiner can find it. If this is not stated, or is too unclear to find, the evidence is treated as not filed in the present case.

Where the party files evidence in the present case and also relies on the earlier evidence, any conflict is resolved in favor of the evidence filed in the present case.

They can be filed as three sets of evidence. The cases will not be merged.

No. The following are justifiable reasons for three consecutive years of non-use: 1. force majeure; 2. government policy restrictions; 3. bankruptcy liquidation; 4. other justifiable causes not attributable to the owner.

The application is accepted as normal. The Trademark Office sends paper notices to the court and the owner and still waits for the owner's response, which can rely on a justifiable reason for non-use, with materials such as the court's ruling or local government documents.

The registration number does not change. It stays the original number.

From the date of the registration announcement.

When filing, also ask the Trademark Office to defer examination. It is then examined after the non-use case ends.

You can write in stating your request, and the examiner decides.

There is no need to ask for it to resume. The examiner proceeds according to the status of the earlier mark.