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EN
Specialist chapter: China’s Trademark Law shifts from registration to real-world use
['Ray Lei Zhao', 'View Full Biography', 'Ronald A Dicerbo', 'Dorien J Clark', 'Jacqueline Vega', 'Rebecca Liebowitz', 'Sahar A Ahmed', 'Steven Kennedy', 'Jennifer Mckenzie', 'Rounaq']
WTR
In 2026, the core concept of the newly revised Trademark Law is to shift the focus of trademark management from “registration” to “usage”.
Trademark usage is an important basic concept in trademark law and plays a foundational role in the construction of trademark law.
Therefore, enterprises should shift the management of trademark usage evidence from “responding to the trademark cancellation” to a daily management mechanism.
Article 57 provides that, when using the registered trademark, the trademark registrant shall not arbitrarily change the registered trademark, the registrant’s name, address or any other registered particulars.
This delineates the boundary between private trademark rights and public expression, aiming to prevent trademark rights from being transformed into a tool for suppressing competitors or “plagiarising” for profit.