A US registration gives you rights inside the United States only. Trademark rights are territorial, so the mark you registered with the USPTO — even a registration you have invested years and serious money in — 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 US brands run into most often: a factory in your supply chain, a distributor you once spoke with, or a professional squatter files your brand name in China first — sometimes before your first shipment — and later offers to sell the registration back. Selling into China through distributors, e-commerce platforms or your own entity all go smoother with the registration in place first.
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 USPTO 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 United States Patent and Trademark 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 USPTO filing date in the enquiry and we will flag whether priority is worth claiming in your case.
US applicants are used to the opposite system from China’s. At the USPTO you build a file on use: specimens at registration, Section 8 declarations to keep it alive. China asks for no proof of use to obtain a registration — you can register a mark you have never sold anything under. The risk sits on the other side of the certificate: once registered, a mark that sits unused for three continuous years can be cancelled by anyone on non-use grounds, so keep ordinary evidence of use (invoices, marketplace listings, customs records) from the start.
The search habits that work at home will miss the marks that actually block you in China. A knockout search of the USPTO register says nothing about earlier Chinese filings, and the closest marks in China are often not English lookalikes — they are Chinese-character marks, or transliterations of your own brand filed by someone in your supply chain. Similarity in China is judged in Chinese, which is why the availability check runs against the CNIPA register rather than a US database.
Enforcement also runs differently. US trademark disputes are mostly private litigation; in China, administrative enforcement through the market-regulation authorities sits alongside civil action and is often the faster route for clear-cut infringement — but every route, administrative or civil, presumes you hold the Chinese registration first.
One more thing worth deciding early: if you sell to Chinese consumers, your brand will pick up a Chinese name in the market whether or not you choose one. An uncontrolled transliteration can fragment the brand — and can be registered by someone else before you act. A Chinese version is never required for the application itself, but registering one deliberately is usually the right call for consumer brands; we advise on it as part of the filing, not as a formality.
Five things, and you almost certainly already have all of them. Nothing has to be notarized, and nothing has to be sent by post — clean scans are enough.
Your proof of legal status — US business registration document, or passport if you file as an individual We ask for it
Usually your Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Organization, or a Certificate of Good Standing from the Secretary of State. A certified copy is not required. If your company was formed by merger, conversion or a name change, the document showing the current legal name is the one that matters. Practice varies by state: the Secretary of State issues these on request and the newer ones reflect the company’s present status, but where a state issues only an incorporation record with no current-state information, we ask for a Certificate of Good Standing to sit alongside it — and we tell you which applies to your state rather than leaving you to work it out. Filing as an individual rather than through a company? Then the document is different: the CNIPA asks for an international passport, and nothing else will do. Send the page carrying your photograph, full name, nationality and passport number, valid at the time of filing. A US state ID card, a driving licence or a Social Security card is not accepted, and there is no substitute once the application is on foot.
Chinese translation of that document We do this for you
The CNIPA requires a Chinese translation, and an application filed without one is treated as if the document had never been submitted. We prepare the translation and it is included in the $199 — you do not need a certified translator. Your document is in English, so Chinese is the only other language involved. Where a document arrives in another language — Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, anything — we prepare an English translation of it first and then the Chinese translation, both ourselves and both within the same price; nothing about that English step falls to you.
Your trade mark name You send us
Just the words you want registered, exactly as they should appear on the certificate. That is all we need to file — no Chinese name and no translation is required from you. Separately, we will usually recommend that you also register a Chinese version of the brand, because that is what customers in China will speak and search. That is a recommendation about your broader protection strategy, not a requirement of the application.
Your trade mark image — only if your mark is graphical Only for logos
If your mark is a plain word mark, you do not need to send an image — we type the words into the application and that is the mark. If your mark is a logo, a device or a combination of words and artwork, then the image is required: send a clean black-and-white JPEG or PNG at adequate resolution, because 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 you our standard form once the quote is approved — you sign it, scan it and send it back. No notarization 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.
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