Chinese Supreme Court rules that hoarding trade marks in bad faith falls within the scope of ‘other illegitimate means’

Wuhan zhongjun v trademark review and adjudication board of the state administration for industry and commerce of china, no 4191 [2017], administrative retrial, supreme people’s court of china, 29 june 2018in this landmark decision, the supreme people’s court of china shed light on the key factors to consider when dealing with bad faith trade mark applications, and confirmed that hoarding massive trade marks without intention to use them would fall within the scope of ‘other illegitimate means’ prohibited by article 44.1 of china’s trade mark law (2014).