Madrid System Users Meeting: Easing of Tough Deadline for Responses to Refusal of Trademark Application under Consideration in China
At the Madrid System Users Meeting held in San Francisco in May during this year''s International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting, the topic of tight timeline for filing a review of a trademark application upon its refusal by the Chinese Trademark Office was brought up for discussion.
It was put forward at the meeting that the existing time limit for filing a request for review of a trademark application in China is too tough, allowing the foreign applicants merely a couple of days after receipt of the refusal notification in general for the preparation and filing of the request, including having a Power of Attorney ready as required by the law.
In response to this, a representative from the Chinese Trademark Office said that China is in the process of revising its Trademark Law, and said issue has been covered in the draft amendment for comment, with the time period for filing the review request proposed to be extended to 30 days from the receipt of a refusal notification.
It was also confirmed during the meeting that meanwhile, sound and smell trademarks remain to be unregistrable in China.
