CHINA Trademark Hot-Line-Customs Protection

market again the goods bearing the replaced trademark?: The period of validity of a registered trademark shall be ten years, counted from the date of approval of the registration. Where the trademark registrant intends to continue to use the registered trademark beyond the expiration of the period of validity, an application for renewal of the registration shall be made within six months before the said expiration. Where no application therefore has been filed within the said period, a grace period of six months may be allowed, yet extra fees shall be charged for the delay of renewal. If no application has been filed at the expiration the grace period, the registered trademark shall be cancelled. The period of validity of each renewal of registration shaIl be ten years. Assignment and Licensing of Registered Trademarks The right holder of a trademark has the right to deal with his/her intangible property in accordance with legal procedures. Trademark holders can dispose trademark right either by assignment or by licensing. Trademark assignment is the transfer of trademark ownership to another party voluntarily by the right holder, either paid or unpaid. And a trademark transfer caused by merger, annex or judgment by a court can also be viewed as trademark assignment. In that case, the assignee should handle assignment with the Trademark Office. After approval, an assigned trademark can be publicized on the Trademark Gazette. The assignee enjoys the exclusive right to use the trademark since the date of publication. The trademark licensing of registered trademarks is to allow others to use the trademarks without assigning the ownership. To license a registered trademark, the licensor shall sign a trademark license contract with the licensee. And the licensor shall report the contract to the Trademark Office to make a record of the contract within 3 months counting from the date on which the contract was signed. Acts Deemed as an Infringement of the Exclusive Right to Use a Registered Trademark As provided in Article 52 of the Trademark Law and Article 52 of Regulations for the Implementation of Trademark Law, Any of the following acts shall be an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark: 1. To use a trademark that is identical with or similar to a registered trademark in respect of the identical or similar goods without authorization from the trademark registrant; 2. To sell goods knowingly which contain a counterfeit trademark; 3. To counterfeit, or to make, without authorization, representations of a registered trademark of another person, or to sell such representations of a registered trademark as were counterfeited, or made without authorization; 4. To replace, without the consent of the trademark registrant, its or his registered trademark and market again the goods bearing the replaced trademark; 5. To use any signs which are identical or similar to another person��s registered trademark as the name of the goods or decoration of the goods on the same or similar goods, thus misleading the public; 6. To intentionally provide facilities such as storage, transport, mailing, concealing, etc. for the purpose of infringing another person��s exclusive right to use a registered trademark.