On Jan 11, 2017, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference on the judicial interpretation in relation to the grant and definition of trademark rights, released the relevant contents about the Regulations of the Supreme People's Court on several issues concerning examination of administrative cases regarding the grant and definition of trademark rights (referred to as the Regulations below), and answered questions from the press. The Regulations will come into effect on March 1, 2017.

In practice, administrative cases regarding the grant and definition of trademark rights refer to the cases in which one is not satisfied with a decision made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce on review of refusal, review of non-registration, review of cancellation, invalidation and review of invalidation, etc and files an administrative litigation. In recent years, the number of such cases increased rapidly, especially in the past two years. The Regulations released by the Supreme People's Court will further standardize the examination of such cases.

 

Song Xiaoming, the president of the third court of the Supreme People's Court, analyzed that it holds a great significance to the proper application of the law by interpreting the meaning of the articles and clarifying the boundaries between these articles as the cases regarding the grant and definition of trademark rights involve quite a number of articles of the Trademark Law.