The CNIPA API for trademark search
China National Intellectual Property Administration support is in active development. Join the waitlist to get notified when CNIPA ships on Signa's unified trademark API.
What is CNIPA?
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA, 国家知识产权局) is the central government body responsible for examining and registering trademarks, patents, and other industrial property rights in the People's Republic of China. CNIPA was formed in 2018 when the State Council reorganized China's IP system, merging the trademark functions of the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) with the existing State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) into a single administration reporting under the State Council. Headquartered in Beijing and operating under the State Administration for Market Regulation, CNIPA now examines every Chinese trademark application under a unified roof for the first time in the country's modern history.
China is the largest trademark filer in the world by a wide margin — CNIPA receives roughly 7 to 9 million trademark applications every year, more than the rest of the world's national offices combined. The cumulative register stretches back through the post-1980s reform era and includes tens of millions of historical records, with the active and lapsed corpus estimated at 80M+ records and growing by ~25,000 new applications every working day. Marks are filed in Chinese and classified under the Nice Classification with a sub-class system specific to China that materially affects examination scope. China has been a Madrid Protocol member since 1989, so designations from WIPO international registrations sit alongside the dominant direct-national filings.
Public programmatic access to the register is genuinely difficult. CNIPA operates the China Trademark Online Search System at wcjs.sbj.cnipa.gov.cn for per-record lookups, and a separate Trademark Data Open System (商标数据开放系统) at toas.sbj.cnipa.gov.cn for bulk downloads — but the bulk system is gated behind real-name verification (实名核验) requiring a Chinese mobile number, a Chinese ID document, and facial recognition for individuals, or a Unified Social Credit Code plus Chinese-document legal representative for entities. There is no foreign-passport path. Signa's CNIPA connector is in active development; we are working through the verification requirements via a Chinese partner entity and expect production access in Q3 2026. This page exists today as a placeholder for the eventual integration — when the connector ships, CNIPA records will be normalized into the same canonical schema as USPTO, EUIPO, WIPO, and the other twenty-plus offices already on the platform.
Unique features
- Largest trademark register in the world — roughly 7-9M applications per year, more than the rest of the world combined, with ~80M historical records in the cumulative corpus
- 2018 reorganization — CNIPA was created by merging SAIC's trademark functions with SIPO into a single administration under the State Administration for Market Regulation, ending decades of split IP governance
- Madrid Protocol member since 1989 — China was an early adopter; designations of CN from WIPO international registrations sit alongside the dominant direct-national filings
- Chinese-language register — mark text, goods/services descriptions, and status labels are in Simplified Chinese; foreign marks may appear in transliterated form (e.g. 苹果 alongside APPLE) with separate records
- China-specific Nice sub-class system — CNIPA applies a sub-class layer on top of the standard Nice Classification that materially affects examination scope and conflict assessment
- Trademark squatting concerns — China's first-to-file system without a use requirement has historically driven high volumes of bad-faith filings; recent law revisions have tightened bad-faith standards but the issue remains live for foreign brand owners
- Trademark Law revised multiple times — most recently in 2019, with further revisions in active consultation; the bad-faith and non-use cancellation provisions have been progressively strengthened
- Real-name verification gates bulk data — the Trademark Data Open System (商标数据开放系统) requires a Chinese mobile, Chinese ID document, and facial recognition, with no foreign-passport pathway available
- Opposition window — three months from publication, one of the shorter windows globally, with strict Chinese-language filing requirements
CNIPA API — Frequently asked questions
Everything developers ask before integrating CNIPA data
Need something else? See our documentation
CNIPA API availability
Coverage & Chinese-language considerations
Need something else? See our documentation
Get notified when CNIPA ships on Signa?
China National Intellectual Property Administration support is in active development. Join the waitlist for CNIPA — and start exploring the offices Signa already supports today.
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