Regulator takes aim at trademark squatting

China will maintain high pressure on malicious trademark registrations this year to strengthen intellectual property protection and serve high-quality development, officials from the country's top IP regulator said.

"We'll keep up the fight against malicious trademark registrations, especially those involving national and public interests, with greater and sustained efforts to combat trademark squatting," Li Chang, deputy head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration's Trademark Office, told a news conference last week.

Malicious trademark registrations are applications that violate the principles of legitimacy and good faith, such as trademark squatting, appropriation and imitation, infringements of others' prior rights, misuse of public resources and massive or repeated registration in bad faith.