China Trademark Prohibited Signs: What Cannot Be Used

China screens a trademark twice: once against earlier rights, and once for whether the sign may be used at all. The second screen never shows up in a similarity search, and it catches names that are entirely registrable at home. CNIPA's guidance on signs prohibited from use as trademarks sets out the categories, and its most consequential feature is a word foreign applicants read past — the prohibition reaches use, not only registration. Packaging, shopfronts, exhibition stands and invoices are all in scope.

A bar that runs in both directions

The guidance treats the rule as two prohibitions in one. A barred sign may not be registered, and it may not be used as a trademark in trade either; enforcement attaches to unregistered use as well. That structure differs from the relative grounds most foreign applicants plan around, where the worst outcome is a refusal and the mark simply never issues.

What the rule protects falls into two groups. The first is official identity: the state name, flag, emblem, anthem, military flags, emblems and anthems, and medals; the names and marks of central state organs, the names of the places where they sit and the names or images of landmark buildings there; foreign state names, flags, emblems and military flags; the names, flags and emblems of intergovernmental organisations, including full names, short names and acronyms; official control and warranty marks and inspection stamps; and the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal. The second group is public order — signs that discriminate against an ethnic group, signs that deceive the public about quality or origin, and signs with other adverse effects.

Two drafting details carry more weight than they look. A sign with several meanings, or several possible modes of use, is caught if any one of them would lead the public to regard it as within the prohibition, or if a particular group has reasonable and sufficient grounds for that view. An innocent primary reading does not cure an offensive secondary one. Separately, marks registered before the 1983 law came into force remain valid, and the eligibility carve-outs attached to individual categories survive.

Consent, and the shortcut most owners miss

For foreign state names and flags the guidance allows a documentary route out: a written document showing that the foreign government has consented generally removes the bar. It then adds something narrower and more useful — where the applicant already holds a registration for the same mark on the same or similar goods or services in that country, that registration is treated as the foreign government's consent. No diplomatic correspondence is needed, and the certificate is usually already in the applicant's hands.

Intergovernmental organisations work differently. Consent from the organisation works, and so does a sign with a clear additional meaning or a specific presentation that does not mislead the public into thinking the user is authorised by, or connected with, that organisation. Official control marks and inspection stamps follow the same two-track structure: written proof of authorisation from the official body, or a meaning and presentation that cannot mislead. The Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal family is the exception — the guidance offers only the distinct-meaning route there, not consent.

All of this is settled on paper at filing. The file either contains the consent, the home registration or an explanation of the distinct meaning, or it does not.

Where foreign filings actually come apart

Deception is assessed against the goods and services named, not against the sign in the abstract. The guidance's own examples make the point: a mark meaning "good soil" on eggs misdescribes quality and farming method; "flawless" on dyes misdescribes quality; "super white" on bleach misdescribes function. The same word on a different specification would not raise the issue.

Geographic deception is the trap for applicants who read the place-name rule narrowly. In one example a mark formed of or containing a place name is filed for clothing and hats by a Beijing apparel company that is not from that place. In another, a live shellfish application contains a place name that is not a county-level administrative division at all, filed by a Guangzhou apparel company; the public would still misread the origin. A third example, "central reserves" for online advertising services, applies the same logic to an authority-sounding phrase.

Adverse effects is the widest category, and it is where invented Chinese does the damage. The guidance lists signs that offend public morality — content touching on terror, violence, obscenity, gambling or superstition, and signs close in shape or sound to such words. It lists political harm: an incomplete national territory in a device, names of leaders including aliases, courtesy names, nicknames and abbreviations, party theory and national strategy phrases, politically significant events, dates and places, terrorist, cult and organised-crime names and symbols, and Nazi symbols. It lists economic and cultural harm: currency names and symbols, and non-standard Chinese characters or non-standard idiom use — self-made characters, added or missing strokes, wrong strokes, and homophone substitutions that swap a character in a set phrase. Calligraphic or artistically treated characters are excepted where they do not mislead the public, particularly minors, about how the characters are properly written.

Religious and ethnic sensitivity sits in the same category. Names of deities, pilgrimage sites, monasteries, sect terminology and ritual objects are named; so are signs that harm ethnic dignity even where the sign itself disparages nobody. Heroes and martyrs form a separate listed type — names, portraits, deeds, spirit and slogans — with exceptions where the sign has another meaning, is the applicant's own name or trade name, or cannot be tied to a particular martyr. CNIPA points to the national register of martyrs as a screening tool. State bodies, the military and the police are covered too, acronyms included.

What follows for the file

A pending application that falls within the prohibition is refused. A mark already on the register faces invalidation. Where the filing also amounts to a malicious application, the guidance adds a warning, a fine, and publication of the penalty in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. Use of an unregistered barred sign attracts an order to stop and to rectify within a time limit, together with notification and a fine.

The guidance also places a duty on the agency side. Where a client's mark may fall within the prohibition, the agency and the agent must clearly tell the client about the refusal and about the ban on use. An agency that knows, or ought to know, that a filing is malicious and takes the commission anyway faces an interview, a rectification order, a warning, a fine, and suspension of acceptance of that agency's filings — again published.

For a foreign applicant working through a Chinese agency, the visible product of that duty is a written screening note rather than a verbal assurance: which category was checked, which document answers it, and which meaning of the sign was considered.

Frequently asked questions

Is a barred sign unusable even if it was never registered?

Yes. The guidance treats the prohibition as covering use in trade as well as registration, and describes enforcement against unregistered use: an order to stop, an order to rectify within a time limit, notification and a fine. It also notes that for some categories a clear additional meaning, or a specific presentation that does not mislead the public, takes the sign outside the prohibition.

Does a home registration answer an objection based on a foreign flag?

For foreign state names, flags, emblems and military flags, yes — a registration of the same mark for the same or similar goods or services in that country is treated as that government's consent. For intergovernmental organisations the guidance describes consent or a non-misleading distinct meaning, and sets out no equivalent deemed-consent route.

Can an invented Chinese character be refused?

Yes. Non-standard characters — self-made characters, characters with added or missing strokes, and characters with wrong strokes — are listed among the adverse-effect types, together with idiom substitutions that swap in a homophone. Calligraphic or artistic treatment is excepted where it does not mislead the public, particularly minors, about the correct writing.

Is a place name always a problem?

No, and place names are addressed in a separate CNIPA guidance. The practical risk is deception about origin, judged on the goods named and the applicant's actual location, and it reaches place names outside the county-level administrative category. Our note on marks containing place names sets out the categories.

Official sources

《关于禁止作为商标使用标志的指引》发布 (Guidance on signs prohibited from use as trademarks) — cnipa.gov.cn, China National Intellectual Property Administration, 19 January 2023.
国家知识产权局关于发布《商标审查审理指南》的公告（第 462 号）(Announcement on the Trademark Examination and Adjudication Guidelines) — cnipa.gov.cn, China National Intellectual Property Administration, 16 November 2021.
《商标审查审理指南》重点问题一问一答——不得作为商标标志的审查审理 (Questions and answers on signs that may not be used as trademarks) — cnipa.gov.cn, China National Intellectual Property Administration, 8 February 2022.