270 Yuan Is All It Takes to Take Your Brand From You

Forty dollars. That is the official CNIPA fee for one class covering ten goods. It is the entire cost of registering your brand name in China, and the person best positioned to pay it is the one holding your artwork files.

This is not a warning about strangers. Strangers rarely know your brand before it has value. The party with your logo in vector format, your packaging dielines, your color codes, and your product photography is the party that manufactures the goods, and that party has been able to file since the day the first purchase order was signed.

Here is the part that makes the number meaningful. CNY 270 is not the cost of a filing. It is the cost of a filing relative to what a buy-back costs afterwards, and that ratio is not ten to one. It is closer to one to a thousand.

Quick answer: CNIPA charges CNY 270 per class for up to ten goods, about USD 40 at the October 2026 mid-rate of 6.7138. China is a first-to-file jurisdiction, so the first valid application wins regardless of who used the mark first. A factory that files in month one is typically registered by month eight, which is usually before the brand's second production run. The only cheap interception point is the three-month publication window.

The timeline, from purchase order to someone else's certificate

Most brand owners assume this is a slow problem. It is not. It runs parallel to a normal production cycle and finishes inside it.

Nothing in that table is unusual. The filing takes one day. The queue takes the rest of the time, and the queue runs whether or not anyone is watching it.

By the time the brand notices, the registration is typically granted and the cheapest remedy has already expired.

Why forty dollars is enough

Because the system is designed around who files, not who built.

Article 31 of the Trademark Law gives priority to the earlier application. The US Commercial Service describes the consequence without softening it: the first-to-file system allows bad-faith applicants to preempt the rights of legitimate trademark owners by obtaining a registration and then holding the mark hostage or free-riding on the reputation established by the rights holder.

There is no examination step that asks whether the applicant invented the mark. CNIPA examines for distinctiveness, for conflict with earlier registrations, and for compliance with the formal rules. It does not investigate whether the applicant is the true owner, because it has no mechanism to do so and no mandate to try.

So the entire barrier between a factory and your brand is a filing fee and a form.

The version that is harder to catch

Full brand theft is loud and gets noticed. The version that survives longer is partial.

Registering the Chinese name only. A brand operating in English has no Chinese name on day one. A distributor or factory registers a plausible Chinese transliteration, and the brand later discovers that its own chosen Chinese name is already taken, by someone who guessed it first.

Registering the logo device only. Not the word mark. The graphic element, filed as a device mark. The word mark stays clear, so a search on the brand name returns nothing, and the brand concludes it is safe.

Registering one adjacent class. The brand sells in class 25 and the factory files in class 18 for bags. No conflict appears on a name search in the brand's own class, and the factory holds a blocking position in a category the brand will want in two years.

Registering in a class the brand will never use, purely as leverage. A registration in a class with no commercial activity is cheap to maintain for three years and useful as a negotiating chip when the brand eventually needs it.

Each of these survives a casual check. Only a search across the full class list, and across device marks as well as word marks, surfaces them.

What actually protects you, and what does not

Three things get relied on. Only one works.

An NDA does not work

An NDA is a contract. Breach of contract is a claim against the factory in a civil court, and it can produce damages. It does not produce a trademark right. It does not stop CNIPA from granting the registration, does not let you file a platform complaint while the case is pending, and does not stop customs from releasing goods.

Worse, an NDA claim is slow relative to the registration timeline. By the time a contract case is heard, the trademark is granted and the brand is negotiating from the wrong side of the table.

Article 15 works, but only in a narrow window

Article 15 of the Trademark Law provides that where an agent or representative files, in its own name and without authorization, a mark belonging to the principal, the mark shall not be registered and its use shall be prohibited.

This is the provision aimed directly at the factory scenario, and it is powerful when it applies. The difficulty is the word agent. A pure manufacturer producing to specification may or may not be treated as an agent or representative within the meaning of the article, depending on the commercial relationship, the degree of control, and the evidence of authorization.

Where the relationship is a distribution or agency agreement, Article 15 is close to a clean answer. Where it is an arms-length OEM arrangement with no distribution rights, the analysis is more contested, and the fallback is Article 44 improper means, which carries a heavier evidentiary load.

Filing first works, every time

It is unglamorous and it is the only thing that is not conditional.

A Chinese application filed before the first sample is shipped removes the entire problem. The factory cannot register a mark that is already registered, and the opposition and invalidation machinery becomes available to you rather than to them.

The sequencing rule is worth stating as a rule: file before you send artwork. Not before the first shipment, not before launch. Before the artwork leaves your computer, because artwork is what a filer needs.

How to structure the OEM relationship so that this does not depend on goodwill is covered in the OEM trademark prevention guide.

If it has already happened

Three routes, in ascending order of cost.

Opposition, during the three-month publication window. Once the application is published, any interested party may oppose. The official fee is CNY 450 electronically, about USD 67. This is the cheapest and fastest route, and it is also the only one with a hard deadline. Under the current law the window is three months from publication; the 2027 revision shortens it to two, which is covered in the opposition playbook.

Invalidation, after registration. The official fee is CNY 675, about USD 101. Available on relative grounds within five years of registration, or on absolute grounds at any time. Slower, more expensive, and it puts the burden on you to prove the registration should never have issued.

Non-use cancellation, if the mark is unused. The cheapest attack if the holder is not actually trading under the mark, which is common. Any entity or individual may file after three years of non-use. It costs CNY 450 and it does not require you to prove you are the rightful owner, only that the registration is idle.

Buy-back, if none of the above is available. Negotiated, uncapped, and priced against your switching cost. The negotiation structure, including what leverage actually exists, is in buying a mark back from a Chinese holder.

Which route applies depends on where the registration sits in its lifecycle, and that is a question about dates rather than about law. The framework is in the bad-faith registration defense guide.

Questions that come up every time

How much does it cost to register a trademark in China?

CNY 270 per class for up to ten goods, roughly USD 40 at the October 2026 mid-rate. Additional items are CNY 27 each. That is the whole official cost of the right.

Can my factory register my brand in China?

Legally, a factory can file any mark it chooses, and China is first-to-file. Unless you hold a prior registration, a prior well-known mark, or an agency relationship that triggers Article 15, the factory can obtain the registration.

What can I do if my supplier registers my trademark?

Oppose during the three-month publication window, invalidate after registration, cancel for non-use if the mark is idle, or negotiate a buy-back. The opposition window is the cheapest and the only one that closes on a fixed date.

How long does the factory have before I notice?

From filing to publication is roughly four to five months, and registration follows about three months later. A brand that orders in January can find the mark registered by September.

Does an NDA stop a factory from filing?

No. An NDA is a contract claim. It does not create a trademark right, does not stop CNIPA from granting the registration, and does not give you standing to file a platform complaint in the meantime.

Is it cheaper to file first or buy the mark back later?

Filing first costs about USD 40 in official fees. Buy-backs routinely run from several thousand to several hundred thousand dollars, because the holder sets the price and knows you have no alternative.

What if the factory registers a Chinese name I have not chosen yet?

That is the most common variant and the hardest to spot, because a name search in English returns nothing. It requires searching transliterations and device marks, not just the Latin word mark.

Does registering in the US first help at all?

Only through the six-month Paris Convention priority window, and only if you file in China within it. A US registration alone gives you nothing in China, as covered in why a US trademark gives you zero rights in China.