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Chines-Trademark-Activity-Review FINAL
Chines-Trademark-Activity-Review FINAL
Activity Review
Report on Trademark Activity in China 2010-2018
Table Of Contents
3 INTRODUCTION
3-4 The Motivation Behind China’s
Intellectual Property Expansion
5 CHINA: FACT SHEET
6 TRADEMARK FILING ACTIVITY OVERVIEW
6 Trademark Applications
7 Data Age and Average Lifetime
of a Trademark
8 Trademark Processing Times
9-10 CLASSES - TRENDS
10-11 TOP PRODUCTS
12 TOP FILERS
13 FINAL THOUGHTS
14 STAND UNOPPOSED
15 DATA SOURCES
15 REFERENCES
Introduction
The Motivation Behind China’s
Intellectual Property Expansion
China is now the world’s second biggest economy (after the
USA). In 2018, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in China was
worth $13.608 trillion USD (The World Bank Group 2019).
China now has the largest population in the world. In 2018 the
population stood at 1.393 billion (The World Bank Group 2019)
and investment by the government in people has been a strategy
that has worked spectacularly well. The Chinese education
system is ranked as one of the best in Asia (Wilkinson 2018) and
access to a good education coupled with a rising economy in
China has lifted more people out of poverty than anywhere else in
the world. Chinese workers have flocked to urban cities and
productivity and wages have grown substantially.
3 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Acquisition and Protection
of Trademarks
- TrademarkNow Team
4 Introduction
CHINA
CN WIPO/MP
Official Register
CNIPA (National Intellectual Property Administration of China)
Opposition
Registration
5 Introduction
Trademark Filing
Activity Overview
Trademark Applications
In 2018 over 10 million trademarks were filed worldwide and
almost 70% of all trademarks were filed in China. The second
most active trademark filer in 2018 was the United States with 4%
(470 thousand) of trademarks filed. The United States was
followed by India with 3% (260 thousand) of trademarks filed
globally.
Registries Ratio
China SAIC 68%
India IPI 3%
Since 2001 (and for more than 18 years) China has remained in
pole position as the absolute leader when it comes to trademark
filing activity. During an 8 year period (2010 to 2018) the number
of trademark applications in China increased almost 7 (+660%)
times, from over 1 million in 2010, to more than 7 million
applications in 2018.
8,000,000
6,000,000
2,000,000
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Year
6 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Data Age and Average Lifetime
of a Trademark
Data includes both WIPO Only 10% of the trademarks registered (and still valid) in China
and CNIPA registrations are older than 11 years, when accounting for the renewal age and
the grace period. Such a low percentage can be explained by the
ever-increasing numbers of new trademark applications filed
> 11 years each year.
10%
Thus, 90% of Chinese trademark applications filed are actually
younger than 11 years. This fact also explains the average young
age of a Chinese trademark. As of 2018, the average age of a
trademark in China was just 5 years.
1-10 years
90%
20 17 17
14 14 14 14
13
15 12
0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Year
100%
22% 23% 24% 25% 28% 34% 34% 32% 34%
80%
78% 77% 76% 75%
72%
Products 68%
60% 66% 66% 66%
(Nice Classes 1-34)
vs
Services
40%
(Nice Classes 35-45)
20%
0%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Year
35
Year 13%
25
35 Advertising and Business 8%
25 Clothing
9
6%
9 Electrical and Scientific Devices
30
30 Staple Foods 6%
43
43 Hotels and Restaurants 5%
Other Classes
63%
8 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
The Fastest Growing Nice Classes The Top Nice Classes
The fastest growing rates in the number of trademarks The top classes in which trademarks were filed in
filed in China in 2018 were found in Nice Classes 35, China in 2018 were Nice Classes 35, 25, 9, 30 and 43.
40, 27, 33 and 23.
+43% in Class 35 (Advertising and Business) +43% in Class 35 (Advertising and Business)
+37% in Class 40 (Manufacturing) +2% in Class 25 (Clothing)
+37% in Class 27 (Floor Coverings) +25% in Class 9 (Electrical and Scientific Devices)
+36% in Class 33 (Wines and Spirits) +24% in Class 30 (Staple Foods)
+26% in Class 23 (Yarns and Threads) +28% in Class 43 (Hotels and Restaurants)
9 Classes - Trends
Top Products
Even though the number of service trademark applications has
been growing steadily, it is product classes that are still
dominating CNIPA’s trademark applications. In 2018, almost 70%
of CNIPA trademark applications were filed in product classes.
25 Clothing
Top 10 Products
Clothing 77 %
Footwear 65 %
Hosiery 61 %
Gloves 55 %
Scarves 48 %
Hats 47 %
Corsets 26 %
Swimwear 22 %
Neckties 14 %
Trousers 11 %
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0 10 20 30 40
30 Staple Foods
Top 10 Products
Honey 32%
Sugars, natural sweeteners, sweet coatings and fillings, bee products 27%
Salts, seasonings, flavourings and condiments 26%
Coffee and substitutes therefor 26%
Pastries, cakes, tarts and biscuits (cookies) 22%
Noodles 18%
Cereal based snack foods 11%
Bread 11%
Rice 11%
Coffee-based beverages 10%
0 10 20 30 40
10 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
29 Meats and Processed Foods
Top 10 Products
Meats 50%
Prepared nuts 44%
Oils and fats 43%
Birds eggs and egg products 27%
Fish 21%
Dairy products and dairy substitutes 20%
Milk 18%
Fruit snacks 16%
Fruit preserves 14%
Crystallized fruits 9%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Make-up 62%
Foundation make-up 61%
Toothpaste 38%
Essential oils 33%
Beauty masks 31%
Hair lotions 28%
Perfume 24%
Incense 22%
Soaps for personal use 13%
Soaps 13%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
5 10 15 20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
11 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Top Filers
Tencent (腾讯科技有限公司), the world’s largest gaming, social
media, venture capital and investment company, is also one of
the world’s most valuable technology companies. It takes 1st
place on the list of top 10 CNIPA filers in 2018.
Top Filers
1. 腾讯科技有限公司 / Tencent
12 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Final Thoughts
To conclude, when examining the volume of trademark filings in
2018, China is by far the biggest player in the world. Over 7
million, almost 70% of all trademarks filed worldwide, were filed
in the CNIPA. The country’s GDP is continuing to expand at a rate
higher than 6% (in spite of a recent slowdown) and this has
continued to positively influence Chinese trademark filing activity.
13 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Stand Unopposed
We, at TrademarkNow, believe that in a country with such high
volumes of trademark filings (over 20 thousand trademark
applications are filed every day), it is important to have a
powerful trademark management tool in place to enable your
trademark strategy and to let you navigate through the data
quickly and seamlessly.
Discover how
NameCheck
can help you
to search smarter.
LEARN MORE
14 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Data Sources
Our analysis relies on trademark application data received from the CNIPA and designated
to China through WIPO. There may exist variations between records necessarily affecting
the accuracy of the results presented here. All data is provided by the CNIPA and WIPO
which has been gathered by using TrademarkNow’s databases and AI platform. Data
includes Chinese trademarks applied for between January 1st, 2010 - December 31st, 2018.
The data is raw data and any kind of filters and standardization to eliminate anomalous
outliers, has not been used. The numbers for other factors (like length of trademark text or
Applicant origins) are calculated from the TrademarkNow database and it is only possible to
do thanks to our great data structure. All data on the list was calculated and gathered in
August, 2019.
References
Hancock, Tom, 2019, ‘Chinese consumers: your country needs you’,
Financial Times, 26 February 2019, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://www.ft.com/content/074395d2-38f2-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0.
Harada, Issaku , 2019, ‘China's GDP growth slows to 28-year low in 2018’,
Nikkei Asian Review, 21 January 2019, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s-GDP-growth-slows-to-28-year-low-in-2018.
Wilkinson, Bard, 2018, ‘China leads Asia rise in 2019 World University Rankings’,
CNN Asia, 27 September 2018, accessed 27 August 2019,
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/27/asia/times-education-rankings-global-intl/index.html.
15 TrademarkNow - www.trademarknow.com
Authors
Elena Gorbatenko Data Analysis and Content Writer
Content Production Assistant