CNIPA No Longer Issues Trademark Registration Certificates in Paper Form Starting 1 January 2022  

China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) recently announced that the CNIPA will stop issuing paper trademark registration certificates starting 1 January 2022, and only electronic certificates will be issued instead. For future trademark registration applications submitted in paper form, the registrant will receive a notification for collection of the electronic certificate from the website of the Trademark Office of the CNIPA.

 

The announcement also mentioned a transitional period for filings submitted in paper form, from 15 October 2021 until 31 December 2021, during which a notification for retrieving the electronic certificate from the Trademark Office's webpage as well as a paper trademark registration certificate will be issued to the registrant.

 

As for filings submitted in electronic form, the issuance of the trademark registration certificates remains unchanged, that is, the registrant can check the availability of the electronic certificate and download it from the Trademark Office webpage.