The new regulations of the National Intellectual Property Administration strengthen the management of trademark use and focus on rectifying seven categories of illegal acts

Recently, the National Intellectual Property Administration issued the Notice on Strengthening the Administration of Trademark Use, aiming to regulate the order of trademark use, prevent infringement, and protect the rights and interests of consumers. The new regulations focus on addressing seven categories of illegal and irregular behaviors, including: using deceptive unregistered trademarks (such as the improper use of terms like "specially supplied" and "organic"); deceptively using registered trademarks; passing off unregistered trademarks as registered ones; selling goods that should be registered but are not (such as tobacco products); prominently using the words "well - known trademark" in commercial activities in violation of regulations; illegally using collective trademarks and certification trademarks; and illegal agency acts of trademark agencies. The notice further clarifies the key points of law enforcement and strengthens the supervision of the entire process of trademark use to purify the market environment and guide all types of entities to use trademarks in compliance with laws and regulations.

In 2026, the National Intellectual Property Administration will focus on addressing acts of "scheming trademarks," such as malicious trademark squatting.

According to the information from the National Intellectual Property Directors' Meeting in 2025, China's trademark work has achieved remarkable results. The number of valid domestic trademark registrations has exceeded 50.81 million, and the brand value ranks second globally. The meeting clearly pointed out that one of the key focuses of future intellectual property work is to continuously improve the examination quality and severely crack down on non - honest trademark behaviors. Shen Changyu, the director of the National Intellectual Property Administration, emphasized that in 2026, greater efforts will be made to address the malicious trademark squatting and hoarding (i.e., "scheming trademarks") that violate the principle of good faith. Meanwhile, guidance on regional brand cultivation and the handling of trademarks with significant adverse impacts will be strengthened to maintain a healthy trademark registration order and market environment.

Jiangsu Province has pioneered a cross - regional scheduling mechanism for patent pre - examination, facilitating innovative entities to obtain rapid patent authorizations within 85 days.

Jiangsu Province took the lead in establishing and implementing the "Cross - Regional Coordination Mechanism for Patent Pre - examination Resources" nationwide. Driven by the Provincial Intellectual Property Office, this mechanism relies on the Provincial Intellectual Property Protection Center to set up a dispatching center, enabling unified dispatching and collaborative management of patent pre - examination cases across the province. Recently, this mechanism successfully completed the first cross - regional dispatching case in the country: The invention patent application of an enterprise in Xuzhou was dispatched to the Taizhou Protection Center with the corresponding industrial pre - examination qualification for rapid pre - examination, and was finally authorized in only 85 days. This practice has broken the geographical restrictions of pre - examination services, significantly improved the examination efficiency and resource utilization rate, and provided replicable experience for optimizing the rapid intellectual property protection services across the country.

The improper use of the "Xuexi Qiangguo" logo to promote paid services constitutes unfair competition, and the court has ordered compensation of 418,000 yuan.

Shanghai Baotu Network Technology Co., Ltd. without permission, used the name "Xuexi Qiangguo" in a separate column on the homepage of its website and highlighted it for promoting its paid media integration VIP services. Xuexi Qiangguo Learning Platform Company believed that such behavior was likely to cause public confusion and constituted unfair competition, so it filed a lawsuit. After trial, the court held that "Xuexi Qiangguo", as a highly well - known commercial mark, was protected by the Anti - Unfair Competition Law. There was an overlap in the business scopes between the defendant and the plaintiff, indicating a competitive relationship. The defendant's unauthorized use of the mark was an intentional act of piggy - backing, which was likely to cause misrecognition objectively, thus constituting unfair competition. Considering factors such as brand value, intentional infringement and the scale of the infringement, the court ordered the defendant to publish a statement on the homepage of its website for 30 consecutive days to eliminate the negative impact and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses, totaling more than 418,000 yuan. This case clarifies the legal boundary for using the influence of public - welfare brands to seek commercial benefits and serves as a warning for standardizing the use of commercial marks and maintaining a fair competition order.

Sources:

[1] Wang Jing. The National Intellectual Property Administration Governs Seven Types of Illegal Trademark Use Behaviors. (December 30, 2025). https://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20251230/t20251230_527477313.shtml

[2] Gu Kaiye. National Intellectual Property Administration: Strengthen Governance of "Calculated Trademarks". (January 7, 2025). https://www.peopleapp.com/column/30051156850-500007295149

[3] Shi Chenyao. Jiangsu Pioneers Cross - regional Scheduling Mechanism for Patent Pre - examination, with the First National Case Granted. Jiangsu Rule of Law Daily, (January 19, 2026). https://jsfzb.xhby.net/pc/con/202601/19/content_1522674.html

[4] Zha Ruhang. Promoting paid services by piggybacking on the fame of "Learning Power"? The court ruled that it constitutes unfair competition. Shanghai Rule of Law Newspaper, (January 21, 2026). https://www.iprdaily.cn/news_41469.html

Editor: Liang Juanrui           Reviewers: Wang Jun , Pan Yingying