English 
Italiano 
News 2019 in China
During the month of April 2019, important amendments were made to the Chinese Trademark Law, which will come into force on November 1st, 2019.
A special importance has the introduction of the refusal to register trademarks which have been filed in bad faith, without any real intention to use them.
This amendment in law will help to fight a phenomenon which is well known from many Italian companies, namely the filing in China of trademarks which are similar with or identical to their own trademarks, made by criminals for the sole purpose of beating the real owners on time, anticipating them in the registration of their trademark in China and with the goal of extorting money.
It is very likely that with the new rules it will become much more difficult to do this, as well as other typically incorrect behaviors, such as filing trademarks which are identical to or similar with other people’s distinctive signs which are different from trademarks (for example, trademarks identical with company names or domain names).
The attention to the phenomenon of bad faith is such as to involve the trademark representatives, who must refrain from assisting the subjects acting in bad faith, under penalty of a fine.
⇒ For more information: Registering a trademark in China
News 2019 in Argentina
With the changes come into force on June 3, 2019, there is now an obligation to periodically file sworn statements certifying that the trademark is in use: this provision has retroactive effect as it also applies to trademarks that have been registered since 12 January 2013, for which the declarations of use must be submitted by 12 January 2020.
Other procedural changes have also been envisaged, including the reduction from 90 to 30 days of the deadline to reply to the objections raised by the Trademark Office of Argentina and the possibility for the latter to partially accept a trademark application, by refusing some products and / or services proposed in the application.
⇒ For more information: Registering a trademark in Argentina
News 2019 in Canada
With the amendments to the Canadian Trademark Law (effective as of 17 June 2019), Canada may be designated by international registration. This means that it will be finally possible for many Italian companies having their business in Canada to request the protection of their brand through the international registration: the holders of already registered international brands will be able to designate Canada through subsequent designations and will also benefit from this change.
Other important changes will be the duration of the brand, which will be no more 15 years but 10 years, and the adherence to the Nice classification.
⇒ For more information: Registering a trademark in Canada
Did you find this article interesting? Share it!