In July, August and September of 2016, the China Trademark Office (TMO) successively published more than 3000 new items of goods/services acceptable for trademark registration. The addition of these new goods/services are expected to greatly facilitate trademark applicants' registration and protection efforts.

Before the addition, these new items were deemed as "non-standard terms" and were usually not allowed to be designated in trademark applications. Thus, instead of an exact description, many applicants had to choose items from TMO's current reference table of goods/services classification which are only similar to items they really wanted to register. For instance, a provider of roof racks for skies and board on automobiles previously had to register "cargo carrier" or other similar terms, and a manufacturer of "POS machines" had to choose the standard term "data processing apparatus" or the like. Registrants in such a situation might face difficulty in future trademark enforcement actions or in defense against non-use cancellations. 

The addition of the new items help ease many of such difficulties. In future applications, applicants will enjoy more flexibility in designations. For applicants who could not choose the most desirable goods/services, if the goods/services now become acceptable, they can consider filing new applications to cover the goods/services.