On September 19, 2025, the Trademark Office of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released a FAQ on Key Issues Regarding the Measures for Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Applications (《商标注册申请快速审查办法》重点问题一问一答). The FAQ explains the revisions made to the Measures for the Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Applications (商标注册申请快速审查办法) issued July 18, 2025 and the reasoning behind the revisions. A translation follows. The original text is available here (Chinese only).
On July 7, 2025, the National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) officially promulgated and implemented the “Measures for the Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Applications.” To facilitate a better understanding of the “Measures” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”) by the public and trademark practitioners, and to address public concerns, this article provides further interpretation of key issues in the Measures, building on previous interpretations.
Q : What is the background of this revision?
Answer : In order to implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on “improving the intellectual property review system”, the National Intellectual Property Administration formulated and issued the “Measures for the Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Applications (Trial)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures (Trial)”) on January 18, 2022 (Announcement No. 467). In the three years since the promulgation and implementation of the “Measures (Trial)”, the National Intellectual Property Administration has handled all applications for expedited examination that meet the requirements and granted expedited examinations. The implementation of the “Measures (Trial)” has strengthened the protection of trademarks involving national interests and social public interests, actively served the country’s major strategies and coordinated regional economic development, and achieved good social results. While implementing the “Measures (Trial)”, the National Intellectual Property Administration kept pace with the needs of economic and social development, actively studied new situations and new problems, and promoted the continuous improvement of the system for expedited examination of trademark registration applications (hereinafter referred to as “expedited examination”).
Q: What is the main purpose of this revision?
Answer: Based on trademark examination practices, we have found that the Measures (Trial Implementation) are still not in line with practical needs. These are mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, the connection with the country’s strategic emerging industries and future industries is not close enough; second, there are no provisions for trademark protection of the modern industrial system, new industries, new business forms and new models promoted by provincial governments, and there are still gaps in the protection of major regional development interests; third, the types of applications for expedited trademark examination are limited to word trademarks, which are relatively simple; fourth, the names of goods and services must be standard names listed in the “Classification of Similar Goods and Services”, which cannot fully meet the needs of China’s new quality productivity development. Therefore, the Measures (Trial Implementation) need to be further improved to better serve national interests, social public interests and the needs of high-quality regional development.
Q: What are the main contents of this revision?
A: Compared with the Measures (Trial Implementation), the main contents of the revisions to the Measures are:
(1) The scope of application of expedited trademark examination has been expanded. The Measures have newly added applicable circumstances such as those involving strategic emerging industries and future industries for national development, those involving important national or provincial cultural heritage, those involving modern industrial systems promoted by provincial governments, and those focusing on the development of new-quality productive forces.
(2) Increased types of trademarks that can be applied for registration. The Measures have revised the types of trademarks that can be applied for through expedited trademark review from “consisting solely of words” to “words, graphics, letters, numbers, or a combination of these elements,” significantly enriching the types of trademarks that can be applied for registration.
(3) The scope of the names of designated goods or services has been expanded. The Measures expand the scope of designated goods or services to include all acceptable goods and services publicly disclosed by the CNIPA, better meeting the trademark registration application needs of new industries, new business formats, and new models.
(4) Further Improved Processing Procedures. The Measures further improve the expedited review processing procedures, stipulating that if, after review, a decision is made not to grant expedited review, the applicant for expedited review will be notified within 5 working days.
In addition, given that Article 10 of the Measures (Trial) has been separately stipulated in other documents, it has been deleted in this revision, and the content of the Measures has been streamlined to 11 articles.
Q: What are the specific circumstances in which expedited review is applicable?
A: According to Article 2 of the Measures, if any of the following five circumstances is met, an expedited review may be requested:
(1) involving strategic emerging industries for national development such as commercial aerospace, low-altitude economy, deep-sea technology, and future industries such as biomanufacturing, quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and 6G, and where there is an urgent need to obtain exclusive trademark rights;
(2) The trademark involves the marks of major national or provincial projects, major scientific and technological infrastructure, major events, major exhibitions and important cultural heritage, and the trademark protection is urgent;
(3) involving the modern industrial system promoted by the provincial people’s government and the industrial chain centered on the development of new-quality productive forces, and the trademark has already been used;
(4) During a public emergency such as an especially serious natural disaster, an especially serious accident or disaster, an especially serious public health incident, or an especially serious social security incident, if it is directly related to the response to the public emergency;
(5) It is truly necessary to serve the high-quality development of the economy and society and promote the implementation of the Outline for Building a Strong Intellectual Property Nation, or it is of great practical significance to safeguarding national interests, social public interests, or major regional development strategies.
Q: What situations do not qualify for expedited review?
A: According to Article 3 of the Measures, expedited review will not be granted if any of the following circumstances exist:
(1) The “Request for Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Application” (hereinafter referred to as the “Request”) is not signed (stamped) by the applicant, or the joint trademark application is not signed (stamped) by all applicants;
(2) The trademark for which expedited examination is requested is not filed electronically;
(3) The trademark for which expedited examination is requested does not consist of words, graphics, letters, numbers, or a combination of these elements;
(4) The goods or services designated by the trademark for which expedited examination is requested do not fall within the acceptable goods and service item names published by the State Intellectual Property Office, or the designated goods or services are not closely related to the circumstances listed in Article 2 of the Measures;
(5) A trademark requesting expedited examination makes a priority claim;
(6) The trademark for which expedited examination is requested is a collective trademark or a certification trademark.
Q: What are the requirements for submitting materials for a request for expedited examination?
A: According to Article 4 of the Measures, when an applicant requests an expedited examination, he or she shall submit a written request, supporting documents proving compliance with the relevant circumstances stipulated in Article 2 of the Measures, and a recommendation or review opinion that meets the requirements to the National Intellectual Property Administration. The specific requirements are:
(1) The “Request” must be completed truthfully, completely, and in accordance with the standard format. Trademark registration applicants must complete the application in accordance with the format published by the CNIPA and may not modify the format. The application must be completed using the simplified Chinese characters and must be printed on both sides of A4 paper. Supplementary materials, if any, may be attached separately.
The trademark registration applicant should sign (or stamp) the “Commitment of Trademark Registration Applicant” section of the “Request Form .” If the trademark for which expedited examination is requested is a joint application, all applicants should sign (or stamp).
(2) The supporting documents provided in Article 2 of the Measures must meet the requirements of authenticity, legality, and relevance, and be able to demonstrate that the trademark registration application meets the specific requirements of the corresponding items in Article 2, Paragraphs (1) to (5) of the Measures. The CNIPA will, from the perspective of safeguarding national interests, social public interests, or major regional development strategies, and taking into account the supporting documents, review whether the relevant trademark application meets the relevant requirements and make a final review conclusion.
(3) The recommendation for an expedited examination request should be issued by the relevant departments of the central and state organs, or the provincial-level people’s government or its general office. The review opinion on the reasons for the request and the authenticity of the relevant materials should be issued by the provincial-level intellectual property management department. Either the recommendation or the review opinion will suffice, but both must be originals. The review opinion of the provincial-level intellectual property management department can be directly entered in the “Review Opinion of the Provincial-level Intellectual Property Management Department” column of the “Request Form. “
Q: In what cases is it considered that no request for expedited examination has been submitted?
A: If any of the following circumstances exists, it will be deemed that no expedited review request has been submitted and the expedited review procedure will not be initiated:
(1) Failure to submit a Letter of Request in accordance with regulations;
(2) Failure to submit, in accordance with regulations, the recommendation opinions issued by relevant departments of the Central Government and State organs, provincial-level people’s governments or their general offices, and failure to submit the review opinions issued by provincial-level intellectual property management departments.
Q: How to correctly understand the time limit requirements for expedited trademark review?
A: After receiving a request for expedited trademark examination, the CNIPA will conduct a rigorous review of the application materials. If the application does not comply with the provisions of the Measures, expedited examination will be denied. The applicant or their designated contact will be notified within 5 working days of the decision to deny expedited examination .
If an application is found to comply with the provisions of the Measures and is granted expedited examination, the examination and approval process will be completed within 20 working days from the date of approval. However, the necessary time for waiting for the applicant to pay fees and for handling specific procedures that have a significant impact on the trademark examination conclusion will not be counted towards the above time limit.
Q: What are the results of the expedited trademark review?
A: For trademarks under expedited review, the CNIPA will prioritize and expedite the relevant process. Substantive examinations will continue to be conducted in accordance with the Trademark Law, its Implementing Regulations, and the Trademark Examination and Adjudication Guidelines, with preliminary approval, rejection, or partial rejection decisions made in accordance with the law. Relevant entities may file objections, apply for review of rejections, and other requests based on the specific decisions.
According to the Trademark Law and the Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law, trademark registration applications that have been approved for preliminary examination are still subject to preliminary examination announcement. If there is no objection within three months from the date of the announcement, a trademark registration certificate will be issued.
Q: What are the circumstances under which fast-track review will be terminated?
A: According to Article 7 of the Measures, if any of the following circumstances are found in a trademark registration application during the expedited examination process, the expedited examination procedure may be terminated:
(1) The trademark registration application is subject to supplementation, clarification or amendment according to law, or to the same-day application examination procedure;
(2) Where the trademark registration applicant files a request for expedited examination and then files a request for deferred examination;
(3) There are other circumstances where expedited review is not possible.
If the expedited review is terminated in accordance with Article 7 of the Measures, the case shall be reviewed in accordance with the general procedures prescribed by law.
Q: What else should I pay attention to?
Answer: (1) A request for expedited examination of trademark registration cannot replace an application for trademark registration. Before requesting expedited examination, the applicant should submit a trademark registration application to the CNIPA in accordance with the Trademark Law and the Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law.
(2) To reduce the burden on applicants, requests for expedited examination from the same applicant in the same batch may be completed on the same Form of Request if the reasons for the request and the accompanying materials are the same.
(3) When submitting paper application materials, applicants must also submit an electronic version (via USB flash drive or CD-ROM). A valid contact number, mailing address, and email address must be included in the application. “Request for Expedited Examination of Trademark Registration Application” should be prominently indicated on the front of the envelope. Submission address: No. 1 Chamanan Street, Xicheng District, Beijing. Recipient: Examination Division 2, Trademark Office, State Intellectual Property Office. Postal Code: 100055.