A focus for Chinese trademark law and practice in recent years has been strengthening the fight against malicious trademark registrations. On November 1, 2019, the amended Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Trademark Law") was officially implemented, in which Article 4 primarily embodies China's determination to strengthen the fight against malicious trademark registrations, greatly lowering the threshold for attacking malicious registrations and also potentially serving as the latest weapon in cracking down on malicious registrations. In addition, the Trademark Law, as amended, also provides other provisions to fight against malicious trademarks, such as defenses against malicious trademark agencies and raising the amount of compensation for malicious trademark infringement, etc. At the judicial level, it is clear that the number of cases has increased significantly, such as raising damage awards against trademark infringers and not supporting malicious trademark infringement lawsuits.
