If you hold registrations in the United States, China and India, you are running three separate clocks. The registrations were the hard part. Keeping them alive is the part that quietly goes wrong, usually because a renewal window opened while nobody owned the calendar.
The three markets have almost nothing in common procedurally. What they share is that a registration in each can be lost for the same two reasons: a missed filing, or a mark that stopped being used. Here is the maintenance picture for each, and how to run all three from one calendar.
United States: two maintenance filings and a use requirement
The US register is the demanding one, because the USPTO asks you to prove you are still using the mark.
- Between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration, file a Section 8 declaration of continuing use with a specimen for each class. The office fee is $325 per class. There is a six-month grace period with an additional fee.
- Between the ninth and tenth anniversary, and every ten years after that, file the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal. The office fee is $650 per class, again with a six-month grace period.
- Section 15 is optional. Filed with the Section 8 in the same window, it makes the registration incontestable on certain grounds. The combined Section 8 and Section 15 fee is $575 per class.
The specimen matters as much as the deadline. It has to show the mark as registered, used on the goods or services in that class, in the way American practice expects for that type of goods. The USPTO also audits post-registration filings and can ask you to prove use of additional items in a class. If you have stopped selling something, delete it rather than claiming it.
If your US cover comes through a Madrid designation rather than a national registration, the use declaration is filed under Section 71 on a similar cycle, at years five to six and at each renewal. See Section 8 and Section 15 Declarations and Madrid Protocol Section 71 Renewals.
One standing requirement: an owner domiciled outside the United States must be represented before the USPTO by a US-licensed attorney. A GTC US-licensed attorney acts as counsel of record for our clients' US filings, which also means the office correspondence reaches someone who will act on it.
China: renew on time, and be able to prove use
China does not ask for proof of use to renew. It asks for it when someone attacks the mark.
- A Chinese registration runs for ten years and is renewed for further ten-year terms. The renewal is filed in the twelve months before expiry, with a grace period of six months after expiry and a surcharge.
- A registration that has not been used for three consecutive years can be cancelled on the application of any third party. The owner has to produce the evidence of use, not the applicant.
That second rule is why a China file needs an evidence habit rather than an evidence project. Keep dated invoices, packaging artwork with the mark visible, e-commerce product pages, advertising and shipping documents, filed by year and tagged to the subclasses your registration covers. Evidence that shows the mark, the goods and a date is what the office accepts.
Two China-specific points that decide how much your renewal is worth:
- Subclasses. CNIPA divides each Nice class into subclasses, and protection in one does not reach the next. If your original filing missed a subclass your product now sells into, renewing does not fix it. A new application does.
- The Chinese character mark. If you never filed one, check whether the market has coined a name for you. Filing it yourself is cheaper than recovering it.
India: renew on time, and mind the five-year mark
India is closer to China than to the United States. No use declaration is required to keep the registration, but non-use is a ground for removal.
- An Indian registration runs for ten years from the filing date and is renewed for further ten-year terms. The renewal is filed before expiry. If it lapses, restoration is possible only within a limited window and with a surcharge, so treat expiry as the deadline rather than the start of a negotiation.
- A mark can be challenged for non-use once it has been on the register long enough, broadly five years and three months from the date of entry, if there has been no bona fide use in that period.
Keep the same kind of evidence you keep for China: dated invoices, marketplace listings, packaging and advertising, tied to the goods as they appear on the registration. Also keep the ownership details exact. Indian records are unforgiving about a company name or address that no longer matches the entity, and mismatches surface at the worst moment, in an opposition or an enforcement action.
See Trademark Renewal in India and our renewal service.
One calendar, three rule sets
The failure mode in a portfolio this shape is not ignorance of the rules. It is that the record sits in one system, the deadline in another, and the person who owns the brand does not know either exists.
- One record per mark per country. Owner name exactly as registered, mark as filed, any transliteration, registration number, classes, goods as granted, filing and registration dates, next deadline, and who is responsible.
- Reminders at 180, 120 and 60 days before every window, going to a named person, with a fourth at 30 days if nothing has come back.
- A use question attached to each reminder, not a separate exercise. "Are we still selling these goods in this country" is the question that decides whether you file, delete items or let it go.
- Ownership hygiene. Record assignments, mergers and name changes promptly in each country. In the United States, recording an assignment costs $40. In China and India, unrecorded changes create standing problems in oppositions and enforcement.
- An annual review of what to keep. Not everything deserves renewal. A mark for a discontinued line in a market you exited is a cost, and deciding to drop it deliberately is better than discovering it lapsed.
Watch and enforcement, briefly
Maintenance keeps the right alive. Watching is what tells you it is being encroached on while there is still a cheap remedy.
A watch on each register flags applications for similar marks while the opposition window is open, and opposing is far cheaper than a cancellation later. On the commercial side, marketplace enrollment in all three markets is worth doing as soon as the registration issues, because platform programs need a registration number and are the fastest route to a removal. Our overview is Trademark Monitoring and Enforcement.
Budgeting
Build the budget from office fees per class, then add professional fees per filing.
For the United States, the numbers are fixed and public: $325 per class for a Section 8, $575 per class for a Section 8 with Section 15, $650 per class for a Section 8 and Section 9 renewal, and $40 to record an assignment. Multiply by classes, not by registrations, which is where portfolio budgets usually go wrong.
Chinese and Indian renewal fees vary with the filing route and the number of classes, so use the figure on our renewal service page rather than a general estimate, and see pricing for how our fees are structured. A useful habit: budget the grace-period surcharge in each market as a contingency line, and then try never to use it.
Sources
- USPTO, maintaining your trademark registration
- USPTO, trademark fee information
- China National Intellectual Property Administration
- Intellectual Property India, trade marks
- WIPO, Madrid System
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first US deadline after registration?
The Section 8 declaration of continuing use, due between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration, with a specimen for each class. The office fee is $325 per class.
Do I have to prove use to renew in China or India?
No. Neither office requires a use declaration at renewal. Both allow a third party to seek removal for non-use, so the evidence still matters, it is just produced when challenged rather than filed on a schedule.
How long can a mark sit unused in China before it is vulnerable?
Three consecutive years of non-use exposes a Chinese registration to a cancellation application, and the owner carries the burden of showing use.
Can one Madrid renewal cover all three countries?
If all three are designations under the same international registration, the international registration is renewed centrally every ten years. The United States still needs its own Section 71 declaration of use, so a central renewal does not remove the US filing.
We restructured the company. What has to change?
Record the assignment or name change in each country, and check that the owner name on every record matches the entity that now holds the mark. Do it before a maintenance window opens, not during one.
