Obtaining the registration certificate is only the starting point of trademark asset management. Carrying trademark rights through one decade after another depends on continuous maintenance: renewal at expiry, recording changes, preserving use evidence, and dynamic monitoring. This guide provides a directly executable maintenance checklist.
1. Why Maintenance Is Still Needed After Registration
Trademark rights are not permanent by default: under Article 49 of the Trademark Law, non-use for three consecutive years without justification exposes the trademark to revocation upon application by anyone; under Article 40, failure to renew at expiry leads to cancellation; failing to record name or address changes may lead to orders to correct or even revocation; and lax monitoring invites squatting and infringement. The essence of maintenance is keeping the right continuously valid and provable.
2. Annual Maintenance Checklist
Conduct an annual health check of all registered trademarks at a fixed time:
- Status check: verify the registration status of each trademark in the trademark search system, confirming no new procedures such as revocation, invalidation, or opposition;
- Deadline review: screen trademarks expiring within the next two years and schedule them for renewal;
- Matters comparison: check whether the registrant's name and address match the business license;
- Use inventory: confirm for each trademark whether it has been genuinely used in the past three years and whether the evidence is archived;
- Goods matching: check whether the approved goods match current operations and whether new business requires supplementary registrations;
- Monitoring review: check whether similar applications and infringement leads detected have been handled.
3. Renewal Management
- Time window: under Article 40, renewal is handled within the twelve months before expiry; if missed, there is a six-month grace period after expiry; if still not completed by the end of the grace period, the trademark is cancelled and cannot be restored;
- Term calculation: each renewal is valid for ten years, running from the day following the expiry of the previous term;
- Operating advice: set a reminder one year ahead based on the certificate's expiry date to allow time for material preparation; for multiple trademarks, batch them by expiry month;
- After renewal is approved, re-download the electronic certificate and update the expiry date in the ledger.
4. Change Management
- Triggering events: corporate rename, relocation, merger, or division causing changes in the entity's name or address;
- Legal basis: Article 41 requires a change application for changes in registered matters; Article 49 provides that altering name or address on one's own leads to an order to correct within a time limit, and failure to correct may lead to revocation;
- Operating essentials: initiate the trademark change as soon as the corporate registration change is completed, covering all trademarks held; a name change requires a change certificate from the registration authority; after approval, update the certificates and the ledger.
5. Use Evidence System
Both non-use cancellation defenses and enforcement claims rely on use evidence, so establish a routine preservation mechanism:
- Evidence types: sales contracts and invoices, product packaging and labels, advertising materials, exhibition records, e-commerce sales pages, license contracts and recordation documents;
- Qualifying standard: evidence must show the registered trademark device, the approved goods, the time of use, and the user—all four elements present;
- Collection method: archive by trademark and by year, collecting at least once a year to form a continuous chain of use evidence;
- Points to note: token use is hard to sustain against non-use cancellation—evidence should reflect genuine commercial circulation; use with altered distinctive features may not be recognized as use of that trademark.
6. Dynamic Monitoring
- Publication monitoring: monitor newly published identical or similar trademarks and file oppositions within the opposition period;
- Market monitoring: monitor infringement leads on e-commerce platforms, at exhibitions, and in offline channels, and enforce through platform complaints, administrative complaints, or litigation;
- Own-status monitoring: watch for non-use cancellation and invalidation procedures against your trademarks, and respond on time upon receiving response notices.
7. Other Maintenance Matters
- License recordation: when licensing others, sign a written contract and complete recordation; without recordation the license cannot be asserted against bona fide third parties;
- Assignment rules: assignment of a registered trademark must be applied for jointly with the CNIPA, and similar trademarks must be assigned together;
- Defensive layout: as the core brand grows, supplement registrations in related classes and defensive trademarks in due course, and bring the new certificates into the same maintenance system.
8. Risk Warning Indicators
Handle the following signals immediately—do not wait for the annual health check:
- Receiving any response notice from the CNIPA (non-use cancellation, invalidation)—response deadlines are usually short, and missing them means forfeiting the opportunity to be heard;
- Finding that the business license information has changed while the trademark has not;
- A trademark with no use records or evidence for three consecutive years;
- Less than eighteen months to expiry with renewal not yet scheduled;
- Monitoring detects others applying for identical or similar trademarks in core classes.
9. Responsibility Allocation Suggestions
SMEs can designate a trademark administrator to execute the annual checklist with ledger tools; enterprises with many trademarks or complex operations should outsource renewal reminders, change filings, and publication monitoring to a professional agency, delegating deadline risk to a systematic process. Whether self-managed or outsourced, keep an internal contact person to ensure official notices and agency reports are received and followed up.
10. Frequently Asked Questions
- Should a temporarily unused trademark be kept: yes, but have justification and try to maintain some genuine use to prevent non-use cancellation;
- How long should use evidence be kept: ideally throughout the registration term, covering at least the most recent three years, and long-term for important trademarks;
- Does use by licensed distributors count as use: use under a genuine license can be recognized as trademark use, but a written contract should be signed and recorded;
- What if renewal fees seem too high: trademarks no longer used can be voluntarily cancelled or left to expire, but core brands should never be abandoned over fees.
11. Conclusion
The cost of trademark maintenance is far lower than the cost of losing the right. Institutionalizing and checklist-izing the four tasks—renewal, change, evidence, and monitoring—is what turns a registered trademark into a brand asset an enterprise can rely on long-term.
12. How to Get Help
For the specific filings involved above, you can book trademark monitoring through MyTMBee, with end-to-end assistance from a recorded agent.