Registering Your Trademark in China Before Manufacturing: A Guide for Bangladeshi Brand Owners

A Dhaka company spends two years building a brand of kitchen appliances, orders under its own logo from a factory in Zhongshan, and then one day receives a message from the factory: a third party has registered that same logo in China, and the factory has been told it may not produce goods bearing it — not even for export. This is not a hypothetical invented to scare people. It is one of the best-documented risks of manufacturing in China, and it happens because China protects trademarks on a first-to-file basis. Whoever files first at the national trademark office usually owns the mark in China, regardless of who used it first elsewhere.

If you are a Bangladeshi importer moving from generic products to your own brand — private label cosmetics, branded electronics accessories, a furniture line — registering your trademark in China belongs on the checklist alongside the NNN agreement and mould ownership terms. This guide explains why, how the Chinese system differs from Bangladesh, and what the practical sequence looks like.

Why a Bangladesh registration does not protect you in China

Trademark rights are territorial. A mark registered with the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (DPDT) in Dhaka gives you rights in Bangladesh and nowhere else. Chinese authorities do not check the DPDT register, and a Chinese factory has no legal reason to respect it. In China the register is run by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), and a registration there covers mainland China only — Hong Kong and Macau have separate registers.

The reason this matters even if you never intend to sell a single unit inside China is that manufacturing and export both happen there. A Chinese registrant of your mark can, in some circumstances, ask Chinese customs to stop the export of goods carrying it, because China’s customs authority allows trademark owners to record their rights and request detention of suspected infringing exports. If somebody else owns the recordal for your logo, your own shipment can look like the infringing one.

How trademark squatting actually happens

Squatters are rarely mysterious. The usual sources are people who saw your artwork in the normal course of business: a factory that printed your packaging, a trading company that quoted your project, a distributor you talked to at a fair, or someone who simply scrapes product listings from e-commerce sites and files marks in bulk. Their aim is usually to sell the registration back to you, to block a competitor of theirs, or to keep you tied to one supplier.

The pattern to recognise is timing. Squatting tends to follow the moment your brand becomes visible to Chinese parties — your first custom packaging order, a trade fair visit, or a listing that starts selling well. That is why the safest moment to file is before you send your logo files to any factory, not after the first container has shipped.

Features of the Chinese system that catch foreigners out

• Subclasses, not just classes. China uses the international Nice classification, but CNIPA divides each class into subclasses and examiners assess similarity largely at subclass level. A filing that lists only a narrow set of goods can leave neighbouring subclasses open for someone else. Your agent should pick items deliberately across the subclasses that matter to your product line.
• A Chinese-character version. Chinese buyers, platforms and even factory staff will often refer to a foreign brand by a Chinese name. If you do not choose and register one, somebody else may coin and register a transliteration of your brand. Decide whether you need a phonetic version, a meaning-based version, or both.
• Non-use vulnerability. Under Chinese trademark law a registration can be challenged for cancellation if it has not been used in China for three consecutive years without good reason. Whether producing goods purely for export counts as use has been argued in Chinese courts over the years, so keep evidence of your manufacturing and any activity connected to China.
• Exact match matters. Register the mark in the form you actually use — word mark, logo, or both. A logo registration does not automatically cover a word you print elsewhere on the product.

A practical filing sequence for a Bangladeshi brand owner

The steps below are the order we suggest clients think through. They are not legal advice, and every filing should go through a licensed trademark agent in China, because foreign applicants without a place of business in China generally have to file through one.

• 1. Freeze the brand. Decide the exact word, the logo artwork and any Chinese-character name before filing. Changing them later means a new application.
• 2. Search first. Ask the agent for a clearance search of the CNIPA register in the classes and subclasses you need. If someone already holds an identical or similar mark, you want to know before you print 20,000 cartons.
• 3. Choose the goods list carefully. Cover what you make today and what you plausibly will make in the next few years. A brand of rice cookers may later add kettles and blenders; check where those sit in the classification.
• 4. File, then start manufacturing. A filing date establishes your priority under first-to-file. Registration itself takes many months of examination and a publication period during which others can oppose, so file early.
• 5. Record with Chinese customs once registered. Recordal lets customs act on suspected infringing exports and, just as importantly, gives you a documented position if anybody questions your own shipments.
• 6. Put it in your contracts. Your purchase contract or quality agreement should state that the factory acknowledges your ownership of the mark, will not register it or anything similar, and will not sell goods bearing it to anyone else.

On cost and timing we cannot give you a reliable figure: official fees, agent charges and the number of classes vary by case, and examination speed changes over time. Ask a Chinese trademark agent for a written quote covering search, filing and follow-up for your specific list of goods, and ask us if you want an introduction or help coordinating it with your production schedule.

What to do if your mark is already taken

If the search shows someone has already registered your mark, do not simply ignore it and keep producing. Options that an agent or lawyer can assess include an opposition (if the mark is still in its publication period), an invalidation action (for example where the registrant was a business partner who knew of your mark, or where the filing was in bad faith), a non-use cancellation if the registrant has not used it, negotiation to buy the registration, or, in some cases, a rebrand for products made in China. Which route fits depends on evidence — emails, quotations, design files and dates showing that the other party knew your brand — so keep every piece of correspondence with suppliers, including WeChat records. Our guide on confirming agreements in writing with Chinese suppliers explains why that habit pays off.

Common mistakes and what they cost

• Letting the factory register the mark for you. Some factories offer to handle registration as a favour. If the application is in the factory’s name, the factory owns the mark in China. The application must be in your company’s name.
• Filing only a logo. A competitor can register the plain word in the same class and print it in a different font.
• Ignoring the Chinese name. If a distributor or marketplace gives your product a Chinese nickname and someone registers it, your Chinese-speaking customers may associate your product with another company.
• Waiting until the brand is successful. By then it is visible and attractive to squatters, and recovering a mark through invalidation is slower and costlier than filing first.
• Forgetting other markets. If you plan to sell in markets beyond Bangladesh, such as the Middle East or Southeast Asia, those need their own filings. China protects production; your sales markets need protection where you sell.

How this fits with the rest of your OEM setup

A trademark registration is one layer of protection, not the whole wall. It works best combined with an NNN agreement governed by Chinese law, clear ownership of tooling and design files, using different factories for different components where your product allows it, and choosing logo printing methods that you approve on a golden sample. If you are new to branded manufacturing, start with our overview of OEM and private label products from China and our guide to getting a new product manufactured in China.

DE International does not file trademarks itself, but we work with Bangladeshi brand owners at the point where branding meets production: choosing factories, controlling who sees artwork and when, writing ownership terms into purchase documents, and inspecting branded goods before they ship. See our China sourcing and buying agent service, the full list of services, browse the shop, or contact us to plan your next branded order.