Your Trademark Was Rejected in China? How to Fight Back with a Rejection Review

If you are building a brand in China, your trademark is one of your most valuable assets. A trademark is the distinctive sign that sets your goods or services apart from everyone else's. Only a registered trademark enjoys exclusive rights in China, and those rights cover only the mark as approved and the goods or services listed in the registration.

Getting a trademark registered in China can take one to three years. Many businesses start using their mark on packaging and products long before the registration comes through. So what happens if the application is rejected, but your brand has already gained recognition in the market? That is when a trademark rejection review becomes your key remedy.

Here are four practical steps to approach one.

1. Analyse the Official Rejection Grounds

Start by reading the rejection notice carefully. Common grounds include a violation of the prohibitive provisions of the Trademark Law, a lack of distinctiveness, wording that is merely descriptive, a conflict with prior rights, or similarity to an earlier registered trademark.

Keep in mind that trademark examination depends on individual examiners, and subjective judgement can lead to different outcomes for similar cases. The review procedure exists precisely to correct unreasonable decisions and to safeguard applicants' legitimate rights.

2. Build Your Legal Argument

If the rejection basis is flawed, prepare a review petition grounded in the Trademark Law, its Implementing Regulations, the Trademark Examination and Trial Guidelines, and relevant judicial interpretations. Compare your mark with the cited marks side by side, and pinpoint the legal provisions that support your case.

3. Compile Solid Evidence

Good evidence makes or breaks a review. You will need proof of identity, proof that you filed within the statutory period, the rejection notice itself, evidence that your mark has acquired distinctiveness through use, and evidence showing there is no likelihood of confusion with the cited trademarks. Index, label and explain every exhibit.

Earlier sales records, marketing materials and consumer feedback are powerful proof that your mark already functions as a source identifier in the eyes of the public.

4. Observe the Critical Procedural Rules

The hard deadline is 15 calendar days from receipt of the rejection notice. If you filed through an agency, service on the agent counts as service on you, so the clock may already be running. For mailed documents, the submission date is determined by the postmark; for electronic submissions, it is the filing date.

The 15-day rule is set out in Article 34 of the Trademark Law, and it is unchanged under the revised Trademark Law that takes effect on 1 January 2027. Do not miss it: once the window closes, the rejection stands.

Arguing Similarity — and Distinctiveness

When similarity is the issue, analyse the font, pronunciation, meaning, graphic composition and overall impression of the two marks. Evidence that the two marks have coexisted in the real market without confusing consumers strengthens your case. And if your mark has acquired distinctiveness through continuous use, demonstrate that clearly.

A well-known brand is at the core of your competitiveness in the market. Trademark review is highly technical work, so do not rush it or file casually. Get a professional assessment first — and if you are a foreign applicant with no place of business in China, note that you must file through a trademark agency established in China.

Thanksgiving, 36 Floors Up: A Six-Course French Feast Above the Bund

Thanksgiving dinner is usually an exercise in abundance: a crowded table, familiar sides, and enough turkey for tomorrow's sandwiches. At Jade on 36, high above the Huangpu River at Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai, they take a more measured route. This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, and the restaurant's six-course menu puts French technique to work on the holiday's familiar flavors, with touches of Asia and a view across the water to the Bund.

There is a particular pleasure in watching the Bund lights come on while someone else takes charge of Thanksgiving dinner. Here, it's the food that commands attention.

Small Plates to Start

The menu is interspersed with little surprises — amuse-bouche that pop up along the way.

The Foie Gras Lollipop looks like a sweet, but bites back with the buttery richness of foie gras, tucked beneath a brittle sugar shell. It is playful, and just rich enough to make you glad it is only one bite.

Gravlax comes next, cool and silky under a dab of horseradish cream.

The Prawn Tart is contained within crisp pastry, bright little cubes of tartare inside — a pleasing snap before the soft sweetness of the seafood.

Small things, carefully made.

Sea Urchin & Caviar Tart

The Sea Urchin & Caviar Tart comes out on a huge plate with a small, careful arrangement in the middle: four lobes of Dalian uni bring a sweet, ocean-deep flavor, softened by sour cream and a pale, sweet purée. The sea urchin sauce makes the whole thing both creamier and more savory; Kaluga caviar adds little salted bursts, while peas give the mouthful something to push back against. It is delicate, but in no way timid.

Dover Sole "Meunière"

Dover Sole "Meunière" follows as a sort of very posh fish sandwich, and we mean that as a compliment. A crisp piece of toast sits on top; underneath is tender sole, with pressed Carabinero shrimp tucked into the middle. The contrast is the fun of it: crunch, softness, then the shrimp's sweet, concentrated flavor. A lemony Gewürztraminer sauce brings a sweet tang and cuts the richness.

Thanksgiving Roast Turkey

The Thanksgiving Roast Turkey is the menu's most direct nod to festival traditions, arriving glossy and bronzed, with the aroma of a proper roast. The meat is remarkably succulent — the result of a five-hour marinade with soy, butter, sage, and garlic, followed by a three-hour roast. The soy is the clever part. It does what a brine does, but with a savory depth mere brine cannot reach, and the meat is seasoned to the center.

Warm potato salad brings smoky ham and a sharp vinegar note; the cranberry compote is spiced and made with turkey juices, tart enough to wake everything up. That tart, savory-sweet sauce is an especially good foil for the tender meat. The plate feels recognizably festive, yet more finely tuned than the usual holiday spread.

Australian Wagyu Beef

The beef course offers Australian Wagyu Tenderloin M4 or Sirloin M7. We had the M7, a compact, deeply satisfying portion with rigatoni filled with foie gras and celeriac ragù. Yunnan black truffle is in season, and its earthy perfume winds through the dish, with a little more grated over the top. The celeriac brings a soft sweetness; foie gras lends its decadent, velvet richness; beef jus gathers everything into one gloriously savory mouthful.

Pink Guava Granité

A Pink Guava Granité in a martini glass is the reset: it pairs guava sorbet with orange and basil, capped with airy mascarpone champagne foam. The guava is sharp and clean, the foam rounds its edges, and basil lifts the fruit with a green, fragrant note. Palate cooled, appetite restored — the perfect interlude at this stage of proceedings.

Dessert: Tart or Cigar

Dessert is a choice: tart or cigar.

The Granny Smith Apple Tart tastes like the holiday, a layer of mille-feuille pastry shattering to reveal tender apple filling. A delicate almond flavor runs through it, supplying nutty richness, while vanilla ice cream and Greek yogurt temper the fruit's sharper edge.

The Chocolate Cigar offers the more theatrical finish. The cloche is lifted, and a drift of smoke wafts over the table; inside, Valrhona Guanaja 70% chocolate meets a dreamlike Grand Marnier foam. A smoky note runs through the dessert, but the lighter, fragrant elements stop the chocolate from becoming too weighty, while a berry-and-tea sorbet sits on the side. It's a playful flourish that earns its reveal.

Jade on 36 gives Thanksgiving its own polished expression: ingredients — familiar and unfamiliar — handled with precision, and enough warmth in the cooking to make the occasion feel like a real celebration.

No leftovers, so no sandwiches the next day. What you get instead is the whole holiday, cooked with far more care and flair than usual, and handed over one course at a time — with the Bund lighting up across the water.

The six-course Thanksgiving menu is RMB 1,188 per person.

Reservations: +86 21 2828 6888

Jade on 36 Restaurant, 36/F, Grand Tower, Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai, 33 Fucheng Road.

Downstairs at YICAFE: The Thanksgiving Buffet

Downstairs at YICAFE, Thanksgiving opens out into a buffet with room for every appetite. Live cooking stations carry the meal across a dozen cuisines, from roast turkey and the familiar trimmings to slow-cooked short rib.

The holiday classics are present, but they have plenty of company. Chinese seasonal dishes bring their own warmth; nearby, hotpot bubbles away, while Indian curries perfume the air and Middle Eastern meats cook over open flame.

The range would be impressive on its own, but the cooking gives the spread its character. Sushi and sashimi are arranged with the care of a dedicated bar: glossy salmon, deep-red tuna and pale slices of snapper, each piece neatly prepared. It is a small detail that says a lot about the attention paid across the room.

There is no prescribed route through it all, which is rather the point. Take a plate, follow your curiosity, and leave enough room to double back. For the finish, festive desserts and themed cakes offer a cheerful last stop.

YICAFE makes abundance feel considered, with enough variety to keep the table exploring and enough polish to make the occasion feel special. Some Thanksgiving dinners are built around one centerpiece; here, the pleasure is deciding what to try next.

The buffet is RMB 487 per person.

Reservations: +86 21 2828 6888

YICAFE, 2/F, Grand Tower, Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai, 33 Fucheng Road.

She Spends ¥10 on Every Meal but Sells It for Just ¥3

What can you get for 3 yuan (about $0.45) in Shanghai? In a city where the cost of living is high, it is not even enough to buy a cup of milk tea.

Yet outside the Zhangjiang campus of Shanghai Children's Medical Center, a young woman has been selling homemade meals for just 3 yuan each for several months now.

The woman behind the stall is Wenwen, a mother in her twenties from Anhui Province with a two-year-old child. She started the stall after seeing vendors resell cheap meals at inflated prices to families staying near the hospital. Having suffered a serious illness herself in her final year of high school, she understands the heavy burden that illness can place on a family — so she decided to set up a small food stall outside the hospital to help those in need.

She did not begin at the children's hospital. Around the May Day holiday in early May 2026, she first set up her stall near Longhua Hospital, charging 5 yuan to the general public and 3 yuan to patients' families. Someone then suggested she try the children's hospital, where the need was even greater — and she moved her stall there.

Wenwen’s food stall outside the hospital. Photo: Douyin account “球球”

Every weekday, Wenwen starts cooking early in the morning in her rented apartment and prepares around 40 to 50 nutritious meals. By 11:30 a.m. she has taken her food cart to the hospital, where she serves lunch to the families of sick children. After the lunch service, she still has her regular job to go to.

Wenwen starts cooking early every morning. Photo: Douyin account “球球”

Each meal costs at least 10 yuan (about $1.50) to make, but she charges just 3 yuan. At first she covered the losses from her own savings. As her story spread online, however, volunteers and donors from across China came forward, bringing ingredients such as milk, vegetables and meat. The income from her social media accounts also goes entirely towards buying ingredients.

People from across China voluntarily donate ingredients to Wenwen’s charity food stall. Photo: Douyin account “球球”

Many parents of sick children have thanked her with tears in their eyes. Whenever they collect a meal, Wenwen offers them a simple wish: “I hope your child gets better soon and you can go home soon.”

For families going through such difficult times, her meals offer not only practical help but also much-needed comfort.

A parent shares the happy news with Wenwen that their child is finally well enough to leave the hospital. Photo: Douyin account “球球”

But as her story has attracted attention, it has also drawn criticism. Some internet users have questioned whether the food meets hygiene standards, while others have wondered whether the initiative is simply a publicity stunt. They even compared it to a recent case in which a blogger was exposed for staging a video of giving money to left-behind children.

Wenwen responded that she had obtained a health certificate. Addressing the attention her story has received, she admitted that “online traffic can be a double-edged sword,” adding that actions matter more than intentions or what people say about them.

Wenwen with the sick children. Photo: Douyin account “球球”

Perhaps her motives do not need to be overanalyzed. What matters is that these 3-yuan meals are bringing real warmth to families struggling through their children's medical treatment. A simple hot meal may not solve their problems, but it can offer comfort, preserve their dignity and remind them that they are not alone.

May Wenwen's kindness continue to spread, and may all the children fighting illness recover soon and grow up healthy.

A Dove Chocolate Ad Romanticised Cheating - and the Shanghai Store Behind It Was Fined RMB 800,000

A short video ad for a Dove chocolate gift box has cost the Shanghai company behind it an RMB 800,000 fine. Regulators said the ad presented romantic unfaithfulness as a sweet experience.

The Ad

The video told the story of a woman whose boyfriend had never bought her the Dove gift box she wanted. While he was away, she shared the moment with another man she was flirting with — who drove two hours to bring her the gift box. The caption called it “so sweet.”

In the ad’s own words: “I asked my boyfriend for the Dove rainbow gift box for ages and he never bought it. Today, while he’s away, I shared it with the guy I’m flirting with — he drove two hours to bring it over. So sweet.”

Who Was Fined

The penalty fell on Shanghai Zongzheng Food Co., Ltd., the company that operates the Dove flagship store on Kuaishou, the short-video shopping platform. The company designed, produced and posted the promotion itself in August 2026 to sell Dove’s colourful chocolate gift box.

Why It Was Fined

Shanghai’s Putuo District market regulator ruled that the ad dressed up unfaithfulness as a “sweet experience,” promoting the wrong values about love and marriage and violating good social customs. The fine was imposed under China’s Advertising Law in October 2026.

The case was made public on November 12, when market regulators from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui jointly published twelve typical illegal-advertising cases from across the Yangtze River Delta. The Dove case was listed first — and its RMB 800,000 fine was the largest of the twelve.

Dove Had Already Apologised

Long before the fine was announced, the ad had already set off a public backlash. On August 25, Dove apologised, saying a third-party store team had created and published the video without strictly following the brand’s content-review procedures. The brand added that, since the video had gone out through Dove’s official channel, it bore responsibility for it.

The episode is a reminder that in China, advertising is not judged on creativity alone. An ad that treats cheating as a joke can be treated as a legal violation — and, in this case, an expensive one.

Source: Beijing Daily / Chang’an Street Governor; case details from the Shanghai Market Regulation WeChat account.

Salary Threshold Changed? How a British Client Secured China PR in Nine Months

After years of running his own company in Shanghai, our British client wanted greater certainty about his long-term future in China. So he set his sights on Chinese permanent residence — the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, better known as the Five-Star Card.

It turned out to be a closer call than anyone expected. Here is how his case unfolded, and what it shows about applying for permanent residence in China.

Client Background

When we first assessed his case, his income met the salary requirement being applied to his employment-based permanent residence route. On paper, he looked eligible.

But before the application was submitted, a change in the income threshold put his eligibility in doubt.

The Challenge

The assessment benchmark changed during the preparation period. Under the higher threshold being applied to his case, the client fell short by tens of thousands of yuan.

When the applicable benchmark was subsequently adjusted again, the case needed a fresh review. The key question was which documented 12-month income period could support an eligible application.

How We Helped

Our team followed the changes affecting the application and reassessed the client's position when a new opportunity emerged.

We reviewed his actual income records against the applicable assessment period. By identifying an appropriate 12-month period supported by his existing records, we established a viable submission window.

This involved reviewing documented income and application timing. We then organised the supporting materials and followed the case through submission, review and final issuance.

The Result

The client successfully received his Chinese permanent residence identity card, also known as the Five-Star Card, after a nine-month process.

A case that had appeared to fall short became eligible through a careful reassessment of the income evidence and submission window.

What This Case Shows

When an eligibility benchmark changes, an earlier assessment may no longer tell the full story. Reviewing the relevant income period and supporting records can be just as important as checking the headline annual salary figure.

China's employment-based permanent residence route sets its salary bar as a multiple of the local average wage, so the threshold moves as average wages are updated each year. If your income sits close to the line, the timing of your application — and which 12-month period your records support — can make all the difference.

Preparing for Chinese permanent residence? Contact Alice for an assessment of your circumstances, income records and application timing.

Beijing Plans One Card for Foreign Work Permits and Social Security

Beijing wants foreign workers to use one card for more services. At a November 12 briefing on the city’s plans for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, officials said Beijing would keep integrating foreigners’ work permits with social security cards, part of a broader push to make life easier for international residents.

One thing to be clear about: the integration itself is not new. It is national policy, in effect since December 1, 2024. What Beijing announced is the next step — putting that integration to wider use — not a brand-new permit.

What Does the Integration Mean?

Work-permit information can be loaded onto an electronic social security card. Under the national notice, work-permit applications, extensions, changes and cancellations are all handled online, and there is no need to collect a new physical work-permit card after entering China.

After entering China, foreign workers can register in the Electronic Social Security Card app with their name and work-permit or social security number. Identity verification is required.

The official sample screens below show the app in English and Chinese, with work-permit information, a work-permit QR code feature and a download for the Work Permit Notice. These are published sample screens, not a Beijing-specific app.

What Happens to Your Existing Card?

If you already hold a physical work-permit card, you do not need to replace it right away. Under the national notice, holders switch to the integrated procedure when their permit is extended or changed.

The physical social security card can also carry a work-permit number. The official sample below shows this added field; it is a sample image, not a photograph of a newly issued Beijing card.

Residence Procedures Still Apply

The integrated card does not remove residence-document procedures. Foreigners entering on a Z visa should use their Work Permit Notice — or the electronic card carrying their work-permit information — when handling residence documents at the local exit-entry authority.

For social insurance registration, employers or applicants can submit the notice or the electronic card through the relevant service channels. The national policy also lets eligible localities extend the card to additional services.

What Beijing Announced This Week

Alongside the card integration, Beijing said it would keep updating its recognised international professional-qualification directory and make it easier for foreign talent to apply for professional titles. The November 12 briefing set out a direction of reform, rather than a launch date for a new card or a complete list of services available now.

Source: The Beijing News

Foreigners Smoking on China's High-Speed Trains: What 12306 Actually Said

A video showing two foreign passengers smoking in the doorway of a high-speed train has sparked controversy online and become a trending topic in China this week — and the response from China’s railway customer service hotline, 12306, has surprised a lot of people.

A reporter from China News Service called the 12306 customer service hotline to ask what the rules actually say. Here is what the operator said.

Smoking on the Platform Is Not Banned — But There’s a Catch

A 12306 customer service representative told reporters that smoking is not strictly prohibited on high-speed railway platforms. However, passengers who smoke inside train carriages and disrupt normal train operations may face travel restrictions or other penalties.

What About Smoking in the Train Doorway?

When asked whether passengers standing in a train doorway with their heads outside the carriage while smoking would also be considered in violation of the rules, the representative said this was a matter of individual conduct that staff could not always prevent. However, if such behavior interfered with normal train operations, the passengers could face corresponding penalties.

Will Staff Step In?

Yes — if they see it. The representative said that staff would certainly step in and discourage such behavior if they witnessed it. The representative added that management would be strengthened, including more frequent patrols when trains stop at stations.

What the Law Says

According to the Regulations on Railway Safety Management, smoking is prohibited on high-speed trains and in designated non-smoking areas of other trains. Smoking on a high-speed (EMU) train can also draw a fine of ¥500 to ¥2,000, according to the official 12306 passenger guide.

Source: China News Service; original report via Guangming Net.