An Australian registration gives you rights inside Australia only. Trademark rights are territorial, so the mark on the IP Australia register — no matter how established at home — creates no enforceable rights inside China. Only a Chinese registration does.
On top of that, China is a first-to-file jurisdiction: the registration generally goes to whoever files first with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), regardless of who used the mark first elsewhere. The pattern Australian brands run into most often: wine, dairy, health products and beef carry serious China export volumes, and Chinese importers know the brand names before the brands do. An importer files the Chinese trade mark, becomes the only party who can legitimately use the name in China, and the export relationship turns into a hostage negotiation. Filing before the first container ships closes that door.
Foreign applicants cannot file directly — the application must go through a CNIPA-registered agent, which is what we are. You do not need a Chinese company, a Chinese address or a Chinese bank account. Everything on your side stays in English; we prepare the Chinese filing.
We file with the CNIPA on your behalf as your registered agent.
Extend an international registration to China via IP Australia and WIPO.
Both routes end at the same register. Direct filing is usually the simpler choice when China is the priority market; Madrid earns its keep when you are extending one mark across many countries at once. If you are unsure which fits, tell us your markets in the enquiry and we will say so in writing before anything is payable.
If you have already filed at IP Australia (the Australian Government agency responsible for trade marks) (or at any other Paris Convention or WTO member office), you can claim priority for the Chinese application: file in China within six months of the first filing, and the Chinese application is treated as if it were filed on the same day as the original.
Mention your IP Australia filing date in the enquiry and we will flag whether priority is worth claiming in your case.
Two different government agencies are involved, and mixing them up is the most common cause of delay. Your trade mark sits with IP Australia — that is the register your Australian mark is on, and where a priority claim or an international registration would be based. But the document that proves your company exists comes from ASIC, the companies regulator. IP Australia keeps no register of companies, so an IP Australia certificate cannot serve as proof of legal status; the CNIPA needs the ASIC extract or the certificate of registration.
The ASIC extract is issued on request and reflects the company as it stands at that moment, so there is no separate annual return or good-standing certificate to chase — just draw it close to the filing date. If you already hold a certificate of registration, that works just as well.
A practical point for Australian filers: nothing has to be posted. Distance plays no part in the process. Clean scans of the company document and a scanned, signed power of attorney are all we need, and the file is handled in English from enquiry through to the electronic certificate.
On authentication, an ordinary filing needs none. Australia has been a Hague Apostille Convention member since 1995, so if a document ever does need authenticating — collective and certification marks do — it is a single apostille, with no consular legalization involved.
Five things for a standard application, and none of them needs a notary or an apostille. One item is worth reading twice, and that is the registration document — because the name on your ASIC record and the name on your product are often not the same thing.
Your proof of legal status — ASIC company registration document, or passport if you file as an individual We ask for it
A current ASIC company extract, or your Certificate of Registration. ASIC extracts are issued on request and show the company as it stands, so no separate annual or good-standing filing is needed on top — just take the extract recently. Two things to note. First, the applicant on a China trade mark must be the legal entity: if you trade under a registered business name or trading name that is not itself a company, the application still has to be filed in the company’s legal name. Second, the ACN identifies the company; the ABN is a tax identifier and does not by itself identify the applicant. Applying as an individual? Then none of that applies and the document is your international passport — the page carrying your photograph, full name and nationality. An Australian driver licence, a Medicare card or a proof-of-age card cannot be substituted for it.
Chinese translation of that document We do this for you
Required, and a filing without it is treated as if the document had never been submitted. We prepare the translation and it is included in the $199 — no NAATI-certified translator required on your side. English goes straight to Chinese. Where a document is in another language — a Chinese-language supplier contract behind a name change, a passport in a non-Latin script — we prepare the English translation first and then the Chinese, both included in the same price.
Your trade mark name You send us
Just the words to be registered, as they should appear on the certificate. That is all we need — no Chinese name and no translation is required from you. Separately, we will usually recommend also registering a Chinese version of the brand, because that is the form customers in China will speak and search. That is a recommendation about your wider protection, not a filing requirement.
Your trade mark image — only if your mark is graphical Only for logos
A plain word mark needs no image at all — we type the words into the application and that becomes the registered mark. A label device, logo or combined mark does need one: a clean black-and-white JPEG or PNG at adequate resolution. Send the original artwork rather than a photograph of a label, because what you send is what gets registered.
Signed Power of Attorney You sign
A foreign applicant must file through a Chinese agent, and the agent needs your written authority to act. We send our standard form once the quote is approved; you sign it, scan it and send it back. A plain signed scan is enough — no notarization, no apostille and no consular legalization.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| China trademark registration — first class | USD 199 / class |
| Each additional class in the same application | USD 199 / class |
| Additional goods or services items beyond 10 per class | USD 10 / item |
| Availability search and written quotation | Free |
Fees are quoted and payable in US dollars and are all-inclusive — the CNIPA official fee is already inside the price and is never billed separately. Full terms are in our Terms of Service; the complete fee schedule for every other service is on the services page.
The process is the same worldwide; these pages cover the country-specific questions — priority from your home office and the Madrid route from it.
Send us the mark and the goods or services you will use it on. We search it against earlier filings in China and reply in writing with what we found, together with the fee. Nothing is payable until you confirm.
Send your trademark and products or services through our client portal. The search is free, even if you decide not to register.
Prefer the full form? Tell us your classes and get a quote · Read our FAQ