Trademark similarity judgment looks at character form, pronunciation, and meaning alike; the three are considered in parallel. As long as one dimension is highly close and the relevant public, exercising ordinary attention, would readily be confused, the marks may be found similar—there is no rule of "looking only at character form" or "looking only at pronunciation."
Similarity in Character Form
This refers to resemblance in the visual structure of the words, such as "大自马" versus "大白马", or "雷碧" versus "雪碧". Typical patterns of character-form similarity include adding or removing strokes, changing radicals, rearranging character order, and using look-alike characters.
Similarity in Pronunciation
This refers to identical or similar calling, such as "金利来" versus "金丽莱". Chinese consumers rely heavily on verbal calling in purchasing decisions; identical pronunciation, even with different characters, readily causes confusion and will likewise be blocked in examination.
Similarity in Meaning
This refers to identical or similar concepts expressed by the marks—for example, "太阳" and "SUN" correspond in meaning, as do "长城" and "Great Wall". Where the meanings are identical and the public would readily make the association, similarity may also be found.
How the Three Dimensions Stack Up
In practice, it is common that "high similarity on one dimension alone leads to a similarity finding"—for example, most trademarks that are fully homophonic but written in different characters are rejected; whereas where a single dimension is only mildly close and the remaining dimensions clearly differ, similarity may not be found. In combined marks, the word portion is more strongly distinctive, and similarity of the words is often the decisive factor.
Self-Check Method
After naming, run three searches separately: search identical characters, search homophones, and search synonyms and foreign-language equivalents. If a highly similar prior trademark turns up on any dimension, you should rename or obtain an assessment before deciding.
If you are unsure about the above issues, you can first run a trademark registration assessment on MyTMBee and act after obtaining an analysis opinion from a record-filed agent.