As per article 8 (1) of the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, which came into effect on 1st March 1983, ‘following words and designs are not allowed to register as a trademark, ones are identical or similar to the national name, national flag, national emblem, military flag and medals.’ Since then, the Trademark Law has been amended for four times, however, the Trademark Law kept a unified position on whether a mark identical or similar to the national name of our country can be registered as a trademark, that is, it shall not be registered as a trademark. As per Article 10-1-1 of the current Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, ‘following marks are not allowed to use as trademarks, which are similar or identical to the national name, national flag, national emblem, military flag and medals of the People’s Republic of China, and those identical with the names and logos of central state organs, the names of specific places where they are located, or the names and designs of landmark buildings.’ In practice, when China National Intellectual Property Administration examines marks contain our country’s name, usually it will be refused according to article 10-1-8 of the Trademark Law. 

However, if in strict accordance with the provisions of the Trademark Law, such as ‘China Mobile’, ‘China Telecom’, ‘Sinopec’ and other trademarks containing national names or abbreviations shall not be registered and used, which is obviously biased and will seriously hinder the normal business activities of these enterprises and institutions, especially large state-owned enterprises. To this, exceptional circumstances are provided for the trademark examination of the country’s name are included in Standards for the Examination and Adjudication of Trademarks Containing the word ‘China’ and with the first word ‘Country’ published by China National Intellectual Property Administration in 2010, Trademark Examination and Trial Standards published in December 2016 and Guidance on Trademark Examination and Trial came into effect since January 2022, current Guidance on Trademark Examination and Trial stipulates that ‘the mark contains the identical or similar words as the name of our country, but the howl is short for enterprises and institutions. If the following conditions are met, it will not be refused on the basis of the prohibition provisions: the main body’s qualification of the applicant shall be established with the approval of the State Council or its authorized organ, and the name of the applicant shall be registered by the name registration organ according to the law; the applied-for trademark shall be consistent with the abbreviation of the name of the applicant, which shall be approved by the State Council or its authorization authority; the mark has been widely used by the applicant for a long time in practice, and has formed a unique correspondence with the applicant in the perception of the relevant public.’

In the review case regarding rejection of registration of series trademark of ‘中国旅游集团’ (Chinese characters in Pinyin is Zhong Guo Lv You Ji Tuan) applied by China Tourism Group Co., Ltd., one of clients of our law firm, as per the examination, China National Intellectual Property Administration held that series marks ‘中国旅游集团’ (Chinese characters in Pinyin is Zhong Guo Lv You Ji Tuan) contain the state name ‘China’, and is likely to lead an adverse effect when it used as a mark. As a result, the registration has been rejected as per article 10-1-(8) of the Trademark Law. From the view of examination of trademark, the logo of ‘中国旅游集团’ (Chinese characters in Pinyin is Zhong Guo Lv You Ji Tuan) contains ‘China’, which belongs to the status of trademark prohibitive registration. However, as per the research and discussion, China Tourism Group Co., Ltd. is one of the state-owned enterprises directly under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. ‘China Tourism Group’ is an enterprise’s abbreviation approved by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, furthermore, ‘China Tourism Group’ has formed the only corresponding relationship with China Tourism Group Co., Ltd after long-term extensive use. Hence, China Tourism Group Co., Ltd. and us agreed that the series marks of ‘中国旅游集团’ (Chinese characters in Pinyin is Zhong Guo Lv You Ji Tuan) shall be preliminary approved, also, we filed the application for reviewing the rejection with China National Intellectual Property Administration, meanwhile, we submitted the approval documents of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and evidential materials regarding the enterprise’s popularity, after the examination, all cases of reviewing the rejection of series logo of ‘中国旅游集团’ (Chinese characters in Pinyin is Zhong Guo Lv You Ji Tuan) were successfully passed, and the trademarks were preliminatively approved.

In view of the case mentioned above, in the practice of trademark examination, although the trademark contains ‘China’ may be rejected, it is not absolutely unregistrable. As long as the logo meets the registration exception, it may go through the preliminary examination and approval. When a trademark application is rejected, it shall actively exercise the rights granted by law and submit a professional and compliant application for review of rejection to ensure the smooth preliminary examination and approval of the applied trademark.