Recently, PUYIZHICHAN has achieved another milestone: it successfully represented a Singapore-based limited company in the review against the refusal of its Chinese trademark application No. 86XXXX. The National Intellectual Property Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNIPA) issued the Decision on Review against Trademark Refusal (Document No. Shangping Zi [2026] No. 00XXXX). The authority ruled that the applied trademark is not similar to the cited graphic trademark, and granted preliminary approval to the trademark for all designated services under Class 35, removing major barriers for the overseas enterprise to deploy its brand in the Chinese market.
The applicant in this case is a Singaporean limited liability company planning to expand its business into the Chinese mainland. It filed the application for Trademark No. 86XXXX "TXXXX", designated for core services under Class 35, including advertising, sales agency and business consulting.
During the preliminary examination, the China Trademark Office rejected the application on the grounds that the applied trademark was similar to a pre-registered cited trademark, which was likely to cause confusion among consumers. Should the rejection stand, the enterprise would be barred from legally using its core brand identity for commercial operations in China, derailing its plans for market entry, online and offline marketing, and e-commerce platform settlement.
To retain exclusive rights to its brand logo, the Singapore enterprise entrusted Tianjin Puyi Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd. (PUYIZHICHAN) to handle the entire trademark review procedure against refusal.
Upon receiving the mandate, the trademark attorney team of PUYIZHICHAN immediately sorted out all case documents, compared the composition, design concepts and market application scenarios of the applied trademark and the cited trademark, identified their key distinguishing features, and formulated a complete set of evidence submission and defense strategies for the review.
The team compiled comprehensive supporting materials including relevant prior judicial precedents, the client’s corporate qualification certificates and brand development plans, and drafted a formal review application to elaborate thoroughly and rigorously on why the two trademarks do not constitute similar marks.
After full deliberation, CNIPA fully adopted our arguments. As clearly stated in the official decision: the applied trademark and the cited trademark are distinguishable as a whole, and concurrent use of the two will not easily lead to confusion or misidentification among relevant consumers; the two do not qualify as similar trademarks for identical or similar services. Pursuant to Article 28 of the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, the authority finally ruled to grant preliminary approval to the trademark for all services under Class 35 covered by the review. This successful outcome preserves the client’s core brand identity and clears the way for its brand promotion and commercial operation in China.
This case stands as a typical success story of PUYIZHICHAN assisting overseas clients in trademark right confirmation. At present, numerous foreign enterprises seeking to enter the Chinese market encounter preliminary trademark rejection due to conflicting prior trademark rights. Unfamiliar with China’s trademark examination standards and review procedures, overseas applicants often fail to submit sufficient evidence or persuasive reasoning, leading to unfavorable review results.
With years of experience in trademark agency, Tianjin Puyi Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd. (PUYIZHICHAN) boasts a professional cross-border trademark service team proficient in China’s trademark review regulations. The firm specializes in complex trademark right confirmation matters including trademark rejection reviews, oppositions and invalidation procedures, and provides one-stop trademark localization services for enterprises from Singapore, Malaysia, Europe, the United States and other regions:
Pre-application trademark search and risk assessment to avoid conflicts with prior rights;
Customized defense strategies and professional document drafting for rejected trademark applications;
End-to-end follow-up of CNIPA examination procedures with real-time case progress updates;
Post-approval services including trademark publication monitoring and registration certificate collection.
Moving forward, PUYIZHICHAN will continue to leverage its professional intellectual property expertise to serve both domestic micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and foreign investors entering China. Through rigorous and specialized agency services, we will resolve various trademark right confirmation challenges, fully protect clients’ intangible brand assets, and support Chinese and foreign enterprises in advancing global brand development in a stable and sustainable manner.
