An EU trade mark (EUTM) is famous for its reach — one filing covering 27 member states. That reach stops at China’s border. Trademark rights are territorial, and an EUTM on the EUIPO register creates no enforceable rights inside China, however many countries it covers in Europe. 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 EU brands run into most often: a Chinese distributor at a trade fair asks to be the exclusive agent, orders samples, and quietly files the brand in China while negotiations are still running. Machinery, design goods, food and wine, and pharmaceutical names are all frequent targets. By the time the distribution agreement is signed, the registration — and the leverage — can already belong to the distributor.
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 EUIPO 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 the European Union Intellectual Property Office (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 EUIPO filing date in the enquiry and we will flag whether priority is worth claiming in your case.
An EU trade mark is an unusual animal: one right that covers every member state at once. China has no equivalent. A Chinese registration is national, and it is the only thing that gives you enforceable rights in mainland China. An EUTM gives you no territorial head start there — but it is perfectly good as the base for a Paris priority claim, or as the base for an international registration designating China.
The goods and services list is where EU applicants most often get caught out. The Chinese specification is not a translation of your EUTM list. It has to be drafted against the CNIPA’s own classification practice, which groups items differently from the EU approach and is stricter about how they are worded. A specification that is simply rendered into Chinese tends either to attract a correction notice or to protect rather less than you think it does. We draft the Chinese specification as part of the filing, and we confirm the wording with you before anything is submitted.
Your company document will be in whichever language your member state issues — German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Polish and so on — and that is fine. We translate into Chinese from any EU language, and no sworn or court-certified translator is needed — where the original is not in English we prepare the English version first and then the Chinese from it, both included in the price. The same goes for the power of attorney: you sign it, scan it and send it back.
One EU-specific point worth knowing. EU collective marks and certification marks exist as their own categories, and if what you are registering in China is one of those, it falls into the single exception where authenticated documents are required. Ordinary individual and company filings do not. Tell us at the outset if your mark is a collective or certification mark, so we can price and prepare accordingly.
Five things for a standard application, and none of them needs a notary. The one point worth reading carefully is the first item, because the document that proves your company exists is not your EUTM certificate.
Your proof of legal status — company registration document, or passport if you file as an individual We ask for it
The CNIPA needs proof that your company legally exists as an entity. That proof comes from your national registry, not from the EUIPO: a Handelsregisterauszug in Germany, an Extrait Kbis in France, a Certificato del Registro delle Imprese in Italy, a company extract from your national equivalent elsewhere. A EUIPO trade mark certificate is a right in a mark, not evidence that a company exists, and cannot be used for this. Most national registry extracts are issued on request and show the company as it stands today, so nothing further is normally needed; if your registry issues only a certificate of incorporation with no current-state information, we will tell you what to add. Filing as an individual instead? The document changes: the CNIPA asks for an international passport, showing your photograph, full name and nationality. A national identity card — a Personalausweis, a carte d’identité, a carta d’identità, a DNI or whatever your member state issues — is not accepted, however much it is relied on at home.
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 translate from any EU language and it is included in the price — no sworn or court-certified translator needed. This is the rule that catches non-Latin scripts hardest: where your document is in Greek, Bulgarian or another non-Latin script, we prepare an English translation first and then the Chinese translation from that. Both steps are ours and both sit inside the quoted price — you send the original and do nothing further.
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, whatever language the mark is in. Separately, we will usually recommend registering a Chinese version of the brand as well, since that is what customers in China will speak and search. That is a recommendation about your protection strategy, not a filing requirement.
Your trade mark image — only if your mark is graphical Only for logos
For a plain word mark, no image is needed — we type the words into the application and that is the registered mark. If your mark is a logo, a device, or a combination of words and artwork, then an image is required: a clean black-and-white JPEG or PNG at adequate resolution. Whatever you send becomes the legally registered representation of your mark.
Signed Power of Attorney You sign
A foreign applicant must file through a Chinese agent, and the agent needs written authority to act for you. We send our standard form once the quote is approved; you sign it, scan it and return it. No notarization, no apostille and no legalization — a plain signed scan is enough.
| 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