After an opposition fails and the trademark is approved for registration, the opponent cannot apply for a review of the approval decision, but the remedy channel is not closed: after registration, the opponent may request the trademark review and adjudication authority to declare the registered trademark invalid under Article 44 or Article 45 of the Trademark Law.
Why There Is No Direct Review After an Opposition
By design, the review of refusal of registration is a remedy reserved exclusively for the opposed party—only the applicant whose trademark was blocked has the right to apply for review. For an opponent whose interception failed, the follow-up remedy is the invalidation procedure, which uses the same set of substantive grounds to fight another round against the now-registered trademark.
The Two Paths of Invalidation
- Absolute grounds (Article 44): violation of the prohibited-sign provisions, lack of distinctiveness, or registration obtained by fraudulent or other improper means. Anyone may file, with no time limit. Where the other party is a bad-faith stockpiler engaged in mass squatting, this is the commonly used path.
- Relative grounds (Article 45): harming prior rights, constituting squatting, etc. Must be filed by a prior rights holder or an interested party, and in principle within five years of the trademark's registration; for bad-faith registrations, the owner of a well-known trademark is not bound by the five-year limit.
Practical Points for Filing Invalidation After a Failed Opposition
- Strengthen the evidence: reinforce whatever caused the loss at the opposition stage, especially evidence of use and reputation and evidence of the other party's bad faith;
- Change the approach: if a similarity/confusion claim failed at the opposition stage, assess whether to switch to Article 4 (bad-faith applications not intended for use) or the "other improper means" limb of Article 44;
- Mind the five-year limit: the five years for relative grounds run from the registration announcement date, and time spent on opposition examination does not extend it—by the time the opposition concludes, the trademark may have been registered for over a year, so calculate the remaining time carefully.
Other Auxiliary Measures
If the other party's trademark has been registered for three years without use, you may also file a cancellation for three consecutive years of non-use (non-use cancellation), applying pressure in parallel with the invalidation—a combination frequently used in practice.
If you are unsure about the above issues, you may first handle an invalidation on MyTMBee and act after a registered agent has provided an analysis.