A Japanese registration gives you rights inside Japan only. Trademark rights are territorial, so the mark on the JPO register — even one with decades of goodwill behind it — 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. Japan and China are each other’s largest trading partners, and consumer brands feel the squatter problem first: cosmetics, household goods, food and beverage, and character merchandise names get filed in China by third parties long before the brand itself arrives. Waiting until the China launch is planned usually means discovering the name is already taken — or for sale.
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 JPO 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 Japan Patent 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 JPO filing date in the enquiry and we will flag whether priority is worth claiming in your case.
Kanji cuts both ways, in a way that often surprises Japanese applicants. A mark written in kanji may be identical, or confusingly similar, to a Chinese mark already on the register — because a Chinese examiner reads those characters as Chinese rather than as Japanese. The reverse also holds: a Japanese mark that is ordinary or descriptive to Japanese consumers is not automatically refused in China, since distinctiveness is assessed against the Chinese public. Both directions are worth checking before you commit to a mark, and the availability search runs against the CNIPA register in Chinese for exactly that reason.
On paperwork, one practical note saves a round trip. The certificate you need is the certificate of registered corporate matters — the 履歴事項全部証明書 — issued by the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局), not the articles of incorporation your company keeps on file. It is drawn from the register at the moment it is issued, so order it close to the filing date rather than sending one that has been sitting in a drawer for years. If your accounting or legal department asks for the 登記簿謄本, that is the older name for broadly the same document; the bureau issues the 履歴事項全部証明書 now.
Your documents will be in Japanese. Chinese is what the CNIPA needs, but a Japanese document does not go straight into Chinese in one hop: we prepare an English translation first and the Chinese translation from it, both ourselves and both included in the price — no sworn translator is needed. This is not optional paperwork: a filing submitted with a foreign-language document and no Chinese translation is treated as if the document had never been provided.
On authentication, an ordinary filing needs none. Japan has been a Hague Apostille Convention member since 1970 and China since 2023, and the Convention applies between the two countries, so if a document ever does need authenticating it is a single apostille rather than consular legalization.
Five things for a standard application. Japan and China both use a public registry for company facts, so the paperwork is usually straightforward — but the certificate you need is not the one most Japanese companies keep on file.
Your proof of legal status — certificate of registered corporate matters (履歴事項全部証明書), or passport if you file as an individual We ask for it
Issued by the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局), not by the company. Please do not send your articles of incorporation or an internal company profile — the CNIPA needs the public registry certificate showing the company’s current registered particulars. This certificate is drawn from the register at the moment it is issued, so it already reflects the company as it stands: no separate annual or good-standing filing is needed on top of it. Just draw it recently rather than sending one from several years ago. Filing in your own name rather than through a company? The document is your international passport: the page showing your photograph, full name, nationality and passport number. A Japanese driving licence, a My Number card (マイナンバーカード) or a residence card (在留カード) is not accepted in its place.
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. Japanese is not English, so here the work runs in two steps: we prepare an English translation of the certificate first, then the Chinese translation that actually goes to the CNIPA. We do both ourselves — they are included in the price, and no separate translation house is needed on your side. Send the Japanese original and nothing else.
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 or translation of the mark is required from you. Japanese applicants often have several versions of a brand in circulation (katakana, Latin, sometimes Chinese), so tell us which one you actually use in the China market and we will advise which to file first. Separately, we may recommend also registering a Chinese version — 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 logo, device or combined mark does need one: a clean black-and-white JPEG or PNG at adequate resolution, since the file you send is the representation that 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 return it. If any notarization turns out to be needed for your specific case, we tell you before you spend anything on it rather than after filing.
| 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