China's Second Trademark Review Circuit Tribunal Opened in Tianjin

On 19 April 2021, the Tianjin Review and Adjudication Circuit Tribunal of the Trademark Office under the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) was inaugurated. The tribunal is located within the China (Tianjin) Intellectual Property Protection Centre in Tianjin municipality.

 

After the opening ceremony officiated by CNIPA deputy commissioner Mr. He Zhimin and Tianjin municipality deputy major Mr. Kang Yi, the tribunal proceeded to conduct oral trial of a number of trademark cases. Oral trial at trademark examination stage was introduced by the Measures for Oral Trial of Trademark Review Cases effective 4 May 2017. By enabling the parties to state their views about the facts and grounds of the cases and to cross examine and debate over the competency of evidence, oral trial is intended to be a fact finding procedure supplementary to the traditional trademark adjudication by documents.

 

The Tianjin tribunal is the second of its kind after its Shanghai counterpart, and is expected to facilitate adjudication of trademark cases through oral trial with the participation of various market entities in northern China region, in particular Tianjin municipality and other parts of Hebei province.