China Trademark Squatters: How to Recover Your Brand¶

You launch in China, or plan to, and discover your brand is already registered — by someone who has never sold a product under it. This is the single most common China IP problem foreign brands face, and it is solvable. There are four routes, and choosing between them is mostly a matter of dates.

First, establish the dates¶

Everything depends on three facts. Get them before you spend money on strategy:

The status of the squatter's mark. Application pending (published for opposition)? Registered? Registered more than three years ago?
Their filing date versus your first use. Any use in China — sales, a trade fair booth, a WeChat account, OEM manufacturing for export — can matter. So can your earlier home filing if priority was available.
Your class coverage versus theirs. Same class and similar goods is a strong case; a different class is a much harder one.

A Chinese search report gives you all three in a few days. Without it, any advice you get is guesswork.

Route 1 — Opposition (only while published)¶

If the squatter's application has been published and the opposition window is still open (3 months, shortening to 2 months for applications published from 1 January 2027), you can oppose before it registers.

Best for: pending applications, clear bad faith, strong earlier rights.
Timeline: file within the window; decision typically 12–18 months.
Evidence that matters: prior use in China, prior registration abroad, distributorship or OEM relationship with the squatter, trademark troll's filing pattern (many marks, many classes, no trading activity).
Watch out: the window is short and cannot be extended. If you find the publication late, this route is gone.

Route 2 — Invalidation (after registration, within 5 years)¶

Once registered, a mark can be invalidated on relative grounds within five years of registration — earlier rights, bad-faith filing, or the squatter acting as your agent or distributor.

Best for: registrations under five years old where you have clear earlier rights or evidence of bad faith.
Timeline: 9–18 months.
Key evidence: your earlier use and registrations, the commercial relationship (agency, distribution, OEM, employment), the squatter's portfolio pattern, any demand letters or extortionate offers they sent you — those emails are evidence.
Note: bad-faith invalidation is not always subject to the five-year limit in the same way as relative grounds; a Chinese agent should assess which ground to plead.

Route 3 — Non-use cancellation (after 3 years)¶

If the mark has been registered for three years or more and has not been genuinely used in China, anyone can apply to cancel it for non-use.

Best for: older registrations, squatters who file and sit.
Timeline: 9–12 months.
The catch: the burden shifts — the registrant must prove use. Squatters rarely can, but be aware that token use (a small ad, a single invoice) has sometimes been accepted. Ask for a use-evidence assessment before filing.
Practical tip: this is the cheapest way to clear a blocking mark, and it can run alongside negotiation so you hold leverage either way.

Route 4 — Buy it (sometimes the rational choice)¶

Squatters usually want to sell. If the mark is registered in classes you need, older than five years, and shows real or arguable use, buying may cost less than winning a case — especially when you factor in 12–18 months of lost market time.

Best for: strong squatter position, urgent launch, modest asking price.
How to do it safely: assign through a written agreement, record the assignment with CNIPA, and verify there are no licences, pledges or seizures attached to the mark. Never pay before the assignment is executed and recordal is filed.
Leverage: having a cancellation or invalidation on file usually lowers the price dramatically. Negotiate and litigate in parallel.

What does not work¶

Sending an angry letter first. It tells the squatter you are serious and raises the price. Assess, then act.
Filing in a different class and hoping. A confusingly similar mark in the same class will still block you.
Assuming your home registration protects you. Trademark rights are territorial. A US or EU registration does nothing at CNIPA.
Waiting for the squatter to use the mark. They often do not need to — the registration alone blocks you.

Prevention is cheaper than any of the above¶

File before you announce. Before the trade fair, before the Chinese site, before the first Alibaba listing.
File the Chinese transliteration too. Squatters often register a phonetic equivalent of your English brand.
Cover the classes you will plausibly enter, not just today's product. Class 35 (retail/wholesale services) is the classic gap for product brands selling online.
Set up a watch. Publication monitoring is inexpensive and turns a crisis into a routine opposition.
Keep evidence of use — invoices, shipping documents, dated marketing — in a folder. If you ever need to prove prior use, this is the whole case.

Found your brand already taken? Send us the mark and class and we will come back with the status, the available routes and a cost estimate — usually within one business day.

General information, not legal advice on a specific dispute. Deadlines and available grounds depend on the individual file.