Recently, coinciding with Intellectual Property Month, the International Trademark Association ("INTA") Trademark and the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration successfully held a policy dialogue to discuss extensively on the latest changes in the field of trademark examination and adjudication at the practice level. Mr. Charles Feng, Partner and Director of the International Business Department at Beijing Office, was invited to participate in the meeting, together with the leaders of the examination departments of the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the relevant representatives of INTA, discussed in depth and exchanged experiences on the representative cutting-edge issues in the current IP practice area.

At a time when China is entering a new era of judicial protection of intellectual property rights, and the Trademark Law is about to be amended, the dialogue focused on the application and understanding of Article 4 of the Trademark Law on combating the registration of trademarks in bad faith, the criteria for the application of absolute grounds for trademark examination, the validity of trademark co-existence agreements and the suspension of trademark review proceedings, and other hotly debated and important issue.

Leaders from the International Department of CNIPA and various examination departments of the Trademark Office provided detailed introduction to the above-mentioned topics, mainly covering the application and determination of important legal provisions, the main considerations in various trademark examinations, and the specific circumstances applicable to the absolute grounds for trademark examination, trademark co-existence agreements and trademark review proceedings.

On behalf of INTA, Mr. Charels Feng explained in detail on trademark co-existence as well as bad faith registration based on his practical experience and understanding, and had an in-depth communication with the responsible leaders of trademark office and INTA representatives.

After the dialogue, the participants all agreed that the event was a fruitful and constructive in-depth communication, the distance between each other was brought closer, and greatly benefited everyone.