China Insight - Lifesciences

One of the new provisions of the revised PRC Trademark Law, effective as of 1 May 2014, is the protection of the priority right of a trademark which is not registered in China but has been used in China for a certain period of time. According to article 59 of the newly revised PRC Trademark Law, if a third party has already used a trademark which is identical or similar to the trademark to be registered by the trademark right holder on the same or similar goods, and such trademark has already had a certain impact on the market, the trademark right holder who registers such trademark afterwards cannot prohibit that third party from using the trademark in its original scope, but may request it to make an appropriate sign of distinction. However, if the prior use concerns a commodity name, will it be protected in the same way by the revised Trademark Law? The answer is not entirely clear.

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