On the agenda: China’s IP ecosystem

China will again dominate Asia-focused sessions at INTA’s annual meeting, and the association’s new president points to an array of hot-button issues up for discussion. Brian Yap reports

For International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meetings, China has for years been the second-largest source of registrations after the US, which has long led in regional representation.

And this year is no exception. While the world’s second-largest economy has taken third place this year in terms of geographic representation, after the US and Germany, delegates from the country have continued to outnumber those from other major Asian jurisdictions, such as India and Japan.

A gamut of China-related topics, from expanding your brand in China to the impact of the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology on China’s trademark registration examination, will once again dominate Asia-focused sessions at this year’s annual meeting, running from 17 to 21 May at the San Diego Convention Centre.

In an interview with Elisabeth Stewart Bradley, INTA’s 2025 president and chair of its board of directors, Law.asia asked which Asia-related topics covered in this year’s annual meeting she was personally most interested in, and why.

Bradley, who is also vice president of innovation law at US-based global biopharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, says she is excited about the in-house practitioner series on expanding and managing brands in China.

The reason? China is a highly complex and rapidly evolving market, says Bradley. The senior in-house counsel currently leads the trademark, copyright and brand protection initiatives at Bristol Myers Squibb, which operates in Shanghai, from its New Jersey offices.

“There are major shifts in consumer behaviour [in China], and I think this series will really be quite current and practical for in-house people such as myself,” says Bradley. “Also, I really want to hear about real-world examples of successful brand expansion in China.”

She also highlights specific regulatory developments that have strengthened China’s IP landscape, including enhanced efforts to deter bad-faith trademark registrations and improve its trademark law through a fifth amendment published in 2023. The fifth amendment is currently in the preparatory stage for deliberation.

But, as the 2025 INTA president, Bradley’s interest in China goes far beyond her desire to learn about the regulatory landscape and best practices for brand messaging and market strategies in China.

She shares new and ongoing concerns raised by INTA members, and leads calls to the Chinese intellectual property authorities for solutions to them. One such concern is the increased rejections of applications and appeals for inherently unregistrable marks in China.

“INTA members report concerns that the stricter assessment as to whether trademark applications fall afoul of absolute grounds under the Chinese Trademark Law has resulted in an increasing number of rejections of applications and appeals for marks deemed inherently unregistrable.”

This trend, she says, is viewed unfavourably. She also points to an observed trend showing that, since the latter half of 2021, the Chinese trademark authorities have appeared to place less emphasis on co-existence agreements than they did before.

“Since the second half of 2021, the Chinese trademark authorities have prioritised public interest over party autonomy, which led to the changes,” she says.

But the senior IP attorney explains that, in ex officio trademark systems, which examine trademark applications on relative grounds, co-existence agreements negotiated between parties of potentially conflicting trademark rights serve as a tool to overcome confusion objections raised due to an earlier existing similar trademark issued by the trademark office, thus facilitating registration.

“We do suggest continuing the previous policy of providing weight to these co-existence agreements,” she says.

Counterfeiting is also a significant issue in China, which Bradley has highlighted, arguing that it remains a serious challenge not only in China but worldwide.

China’s market regulator proposed amendments to the country’s e-commerce law in 2021, with changes including enabling authorities to restrict e-commerce platform operators from conducting online business activities and revoking their licences if they fail to take action against vendors who violate IP rights. Like the published fifth amendment to the country’s trademark law, the proposed amendments to the e-commerce law currently remain at the preparatory stage for deliberation.

But Bradley says that certain key areas could benefit from further regulatory clarification, including the statutory response framework. As an example, she points to the absence of a specified timeframe under the current law within which an e-commerce platform must act upon receiving an infringement notification from a brand owner.