Your China Trademark Application Was Refused - Now What?

A refusal from CNIPA is not the end of your trademark. It is a procedural step, and it comes with a deadline that decides whether you have a case at all.

Most applicants who lose their mark in China do not lose it at examination. They lose it because the 15-day appeal window passed while the notice sat in an inbox. This guide explains what the refusal actually means, how the deadline works, and how to judge whether an appeal is worth filing.

First: what exactly was refused

CNIPA does not refuse applications in one way. The notice tells you which kind of objection you are facing, and the two categories behave very differently.

Absolute grounds — the mark itself

The examiner objects to the mark on its own merits, independent of what anyone else owns:

Lack of distinctiveness. The mark is descriptive of the goods, a generic term, or too simple to function as a source identifier. Filing PREMIUM LEATHER for leather goods will draw this.
Deceptive or misleading. The mark suggests a quality, origin or characteristic the goods do not have.
Against public order or morality, or identical to a protected official symbol or emblem.
Devoid of distinctive character as a plain letter or number combination, or an ordinary geometric shape.

Absolute-ground refusals are harder to overturn because there is no conflicting party to negotiate with. The argument has to be that the mark has acquired distinctiveness through use, or that the examiner read it too strictly.

Relative grounds — someone else's earlier right

The examiner cites an existing registration or pending application as a bar:

An earlier identical or similar mark in the same or related classes.
A well-known mark protected beyond its own class.
An agent or representative who registered your mark without authorisation.
A prior conflicting right such as a copyright or a design right asserted against the mark.

Relative-ground refusals are often more tractable. The earlier right may be vulnerable to cancellation for non-use, may be assignable, or may be distinguishable in a way the examiner underweighted.

The 15-day deadline, precisely

The appeal against a refusal (驳回复审) must be filed with the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) within 15 days of receiving the refusal notice.

Three points decide whether you still have time:

The clock starts from receipt, not from the notice date. For a foreign applicant using an agent in China, receipt is normally the date the notice reaches the agent. That is why the notice must reach us the day it arrives, and why we do not wait for a weekly digest.
It is 15 days, not 15 business days. Weekends and public holidays count. A deadline falling on a holiday moves to the next working day, but do not plan around that.
The date is absolute in practice. Extensions are not available on request. If the window closes, the application is deemed withdrawn and there is no appeal against that.

If the deadline is genuinely threatened, an appeal filed in bare form within the window, with the full reasoning submitted afterwards, preserves the position. Filing late does not.

What you can still do after the deadline

The application itself is lost, but the mark is not. You can refile the same mark as a fresh application. Two things to weigh first: your original filing date is gone, so anything filed during that gap has priority over you; and if the refusal was on absolute grounds, a refiled application will meet the same objection.

Judging whether to appeal

An appeal costs official fees plus professional time, and takes roughly nine to twelve months. Before committing, four questions matter.

Is the refusal well-founded? If the examiner cited an identical mark in the same class with the same goods, an appeal is likely to fail. Review the notice critically rather than reflexively.

Is the cited mark actually vulnerable? A registration that has not been used for three consecutive years can be cancelled for non-use. If the blocking mark is unused and has been registered for more than three years, a cancellation action may clear the path — sometimes faster and more cheaply than an appeal.

Is the blocking mark used at all? Check whether the owner has a live business, a website, product listings. An unused registration held by a private party is often resolvable by negotiation; a registration held by a company actively enforcing it is not.

What is the mark worth to you? For a brand you are already selling under in China, an appeal is usually worth it — the alternative is rebranding your Chinese-facing business. For a defensive filing you may never use, a refusal is sometimes an acceptable outcome.

How the appeal actually works

The appeal is filed with TRAB, not with the examination division that refused you. The reasoning is presented in writing, with evidence where relevant: proof of use, proof of acquired distinctiveness, coexistence agreements with the cited mark's owner, or argument distinguishing the marks.

The board reviews the decision on the record, and in some cases the examination division's decision is reversed outright. The result is a decision either allowing the application to proceed to publication or confirming the refusal.

If the appeal is refused, a further action lies to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court within 30 days, and from there in principle to the appellate level. Court actions are a genuine option but they carry real cost, and they are worth pursuing mainly for marks of substantial commercial value.

Practical measures that save time

Get the notice to your agent the day it arrives. Every day of the 15-day window matters when evidence or instructions have to travel between jurisdictions.

Have the evidence ready in advance. If you are using the mark commercially in China, invoices, product photographs, packaging, marketing material and distributor agreements all support a distinctiveness argument. Assembling them after the refusal costs days you may not have.

Check the cited mark before deciding. Whether the blocking registration is used, how old it is and who owns it changes the strategy entirely.

Consider coexistence. A written coexistence agreement with the cited mark's owner is recognised in Chinese practice where it does not create a likelihood of confusion. It is often the fastest way to a registration.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to appeal a China trademark refusal?

Fifteen days from the date you receive the refusal notice. Calendar days, and the window is not extendable on request.

Can I appeal a Chinese trademark refusal myself?

The appeal must be filed with TRAB through a qualified Chinese trademark agent. A foreign applicant without a registered domicile or business in China must act through one in any case.

What is the success rate of a China trademark refusal appeal?

It varies widely with the ground of refusal. Relative-ground refusals with a vulnerable or negotiable cited mark succeed frequently; absolute-ground refusals against descriptive or generic marks usually do not. Judge each case on its own notice.

Is it better to appeal or to refile the application?

Appeal if you have a real argument, because refiling loses your original filing date and will meet the same objection if the ground was absolute. Refile when the refusal is unarguable and you simply need a fresh start with an adjusted mark.

What happens if I miss the 15-day deadline?

The application is deemed withdrawn and cannot be revived. You may file a new application for the same mark, but with a new filing date and no priority over anything filed in the interval.

Can I still get the trademark if the appeal fails?

Yes, in most cases — by filing again with a modified mark, by clearing the cited registration through non-use cancellation, or by reaching coexistence with its owner. The specific application is lost; the brand strategy is not.

A note on the 2026 revision of the Trademark Law

China comprehensively revised the Trademark Law on 26 June 2026, and the new text takes effect on 1 January 2027. The fifteen-day deadline to file for review is unchanged, and the refusal grounds described in this article are preserved in the revised law with renumbered articles.

The relative-grounds provision moves from Article 30 to Article 20, and the absolute grounds for refusal are consolidated in Chapter 2 of the revised law, with the distinctiveness provision moving from Article 11 to Article 17 and the prohibited-signs provision from Article 10 to Article 15. The appeal itself continues to run to the same review body. If you receive a refusal notice, work from the deadline printed on the notice rather than from the article numbers, since those are in transition.