Covering the RCEP Markets: A Filing Plan

RCEP does not create a regional trademark. There is no bloc-wide application, no shared register and no single enforcement route. You still file country by country, or use the Madrid Protocol to reach several countries from one application. That is the whole answer to "does RCEP change my filing plan".

The useful question sits underneath it. If you manufacture in the region and sell across it, which of the 15 RCEP markets do you file in, in what order, and by which route? Here is a plan you can work from.

The 15 RCEP markets

RCEP covers the ten ASEAN states that signed it plus five partner countries.

• ASEAN members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Partner countries: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

India took part in the talks and left before signing, so it is not in the bloc. If India is one of your sales markets, plan it as a separate filing. Our guide covers that route: Filing an Indian Trademark from Outside India.

Two routes, and how the members split

Fourteen of the fifteen RCEP members belong to the Madrid Protocol, so you can designate them from a single international application built on your home application or registration. Myanmar is the exception. It runs its own register, and a filing there is made directly through a local agent.

Madrid is a paperwork saving, not an examination saving. Each office you designate still examines under its own law and can issue a provisional refusal. Answering one means appointing local counsel in that country at local rates. Where Madrid earns its keep is breadth: one application, one renewal date, one place to record a change of name or owner. If you only need two or three countries, compare the two routes before you commit. We set out the maths in Madrid Protocol vs Direct Filing.

Membership changes over time. Check the current WIPO member list when you build the application rather than working from an old plan.

Step one: file in China

China awards rights to the first applicant, not the first user. Selling there, or making goods there for export, does not by itself give you a right you can enforce. Someone else can register your name and you then have to buy it back or cancel it. That is why a China filing goes first for almost every brand with a factory or a supplier in the region.

Three practical points:

• File the Latin script mark and a Chinese character version. Customers, distributors and copycats will all coin a Chinese name for you if you do not choose one yourself.
• File before the mark leaves your building. A trade fair, a supplier quote or a packaging proof is enough exposure for a squatter to act on.
• Mind the subclass system. CNIPA divides each Nice class into subclasses, and cover in one subclass does not stop a mark in the next one. Coverage is only as good as the item list you file.

The detail is in How to Register a Trademark in China and First-to-File vs First-to-Use.

Step two: sequence the sales markets

After China, order the rest by where the money is and where the copies show up.

1. Markets where you already ship, in revenue order.
2. Markets on the next 12 months of the roadmap, so the filing lands before the launch.
3. Markets with a known counterfeiting or squatting problem in your category, even if sales there are small.
4. Everything else, when budget allows.

Singapore is often filed early by brands that use it as a regional base. Japan, Korea and Australia usually follow first sales rather than lead them, because all three examine reasonably quickly and rights come from registration.

What the offices charge

These are official filing fees, not the all-in cost. They exclude the local agent, translation and our fee.

• China (CNIPA): about CNY 270 per class filed online, for a list of up to ten items, with a further charge for each extra item.
• Japan (JPO): JPY 3,400 plus JPY 8,600 per class at filing, then JPY 32,900 per class to register.
• Australia (IP Australia): AUD 250 per class using the picklist.
• South Korea (KIPO): KRW 62,000 per class.

For New Zealand and the ASEAN offices, fees vary by country and by how the goods list is drafted. Our international trademark service page carries the all-in price per market, and pricing shows how the fees are made up.

Use your six months of priority

Under the Paris Convention, a filing in one member country gives you six months to file in others and claim the first date. A China application in January can carry that January date into Japan, Korea, Australia and the ASEAN markets until July.

Treat those six months as a budget window rather than a deadline you discover late. Decide up front which markets are inside the window and which will be filed later on their own dates.

Build one goods list, then localize it

All RCEP members classify goods and services on the Nice system, so a single master specification travels well. It still needs local trimming.

• Keep the core list tight. Broad claims invite citations and oppositions, and in some markets they invite a partial non-use attack later.
• Match the list to what you actually sell, in the words the office expects. Pre-approved terms clear faster in China, Japan and Australia.
• Watch the China subclasses and the item counts, since they drive both cover and cost.

If you are unsure which classes you need, class assist walks through it, and Nice Classification: How to Choose the Right Trademark Classes explains the system.

What RCEP does give you

Chapter 11 of the agreement sets a floor. Members must allow registration and protection of signs that distinguish goods or services, including service marks, must run a classification system consistent with the Nice Agreement, and must give rights holders access to civil and criminal remedies for infringement, through their own courts and procedures.

That floor is worth knowing because it tells you what to expect as a baseline in every member country. It is not a filing route, it does not merge examination, and it does not soften local grounds for refusal, opposition or non-use cancellation. Those stay national.

A worked sequence for a China-based brand

1. Clear the name. Search China first, then your top three sales markets. Fix the name now if it is blocked, not after the first refusal.
2. File in China: Latin mark, Chinese character mark, core classes and the subclasses that match your item list.
3. Inside six months, file the next tier. Either designate them through Madrid from the China base, or file directly where a local agent adds value.
4. At launch in each market, set up marketplace enrollment and a watch, so copies are caught while listings are new.
5. Record customs details where the market supports it and counterfeits move in volume.
6. Keep dated proof of use in each country. It supports enforcement, and in several markets it answers a non-use challenge.

Sources

• WIPO, Madrid System members
• China National Intellectual Property Administration
• Japan Patent Office
• IP Australia
• Korean Intellectual Property Office