Though China has adopted the Nice Classification as the basis for its Classifications of Goods & Services, there is a unique subclass system, i.e. goods in different subclasses may be considered different even though they are from the same class. For example, in Class 25, shoes which fall in subclass 2507 are considered different from socks which fall in subclass 2509, meaning that if a company registered ABC on shoes, it cannot stop others from selling socks bearing the same ABC mark, unless proving ABC is well known.
Bearing this in mind, it is important to consider the subclass coverage at the time of filing trademark applications in China. Simply using the identical list of goods and services from US or EU applications would not be a good idea in China.
On the other hand, since China has adopted the first-to-file principle, securing an early filing date is crucial for trademark protection, thus applicants would not want to spend too much time discussing the specific goods & services before filing.
How to easily and quickly generate the proper list of goods & services with sufficient coverage of protection according to the examination criteria in China?
Our eService Platform offers a tool for users to search and select the standard goods/services with the numbers of subclasses, so just in a few clicks, the task is completed. Since all the items are standard, it also reduces the risk of encountering office actions, and further shortens the time of trademark prosecution.
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