When you find your trademark has been squatted, the weapon of choice is a trademark opposition: if the squatted trademark is still in the preliminary approval announcement period, file an opposition within three months of the announcement date. The trademark is not yet registered, and if the opposition is upheld, registration is refused—this is the lowest-cost, fastest-acting window. Once the three months are missed, the opposition path closes permanently, leaving invalidation or non-use cancellation as second-best options. The following discussion focuses on the opposition procedure.
Opposition Period and Standing
The opposition period is three months from the date of the preliminary approval announcement (Article 33 of the Trademark Law). Where the opposition is based on relative grounds such as harming prior rights or squatting a trademark in prior use, the filer must be a prior rights holder or an interested party; where absolute grounds apply, anyone may file. Filings made after the period expires will not be accepted—a calendar reminder matters more than after-the-fact remedies.
Applicable Provisions: Articles 15 and 32
The two principal blades against squatting: Article 15 targets squatting by agents, representatives, and those who, through contractual or business dealings, knowingly register another's trademark—the evidentiary core is the parties' relationship and the other party's knowledge of the trademark. The latter part of Article 32 targets squatting a trademark that another party has used earlier and that has acquired a certain influence—the evidentiary core is prior use before the filing date plus a certain influence; the former part covers squatting that harms prior rights such as trade name rights, name rights, and copyright. For squatting of well-known trademarks, also invoke Article 13; for mass stockpiling, Article 4 may be invoked in parallel to strengthen the impropriety argument.
Key Evidence
- Prior use evidence must predate the squatting filing date: contracts, invoices, packaging, advertisements, media coverage, e-commerce listing records—dates and specimens must correspond one-to-one;
- Corroboration of knowledge or constructive knowledge: agency agreements, distribution dealings, correspondence, and proof that the other party encountered the mark on public occasions;
- Corroboration of impropriety: records of demanding high assignment fees, a list showing mass stockpiling of trademarks, and records of similar batch squatting.
What Determines the Success Rate
The overall success rate of squatting oppositions is relatively high, but it depends heavily on evidence quality: where the prior-use evidence forms a complete timeline and knowledge can be proven, the odds are strong; where there are only scattered traces of use and the other party's knowledge cannot be proven, CNIPA may find it a coincidental application in normal competition. If the opposition is upheld, registration is refused; if your own application is filed in parallel, the channel opens naturally once the squatted trademark is cleared. If the announcement period has been missed, switch to invalidation (Articles 44 and 45), and if the squatted trademark has gone unused for three full years, file a non-use cancellation in parallel. A concrete strategy can be determined after consulting a registered agent on MyTMBee.