By SupplierVerify Team | Published: August 12, 2026
Your supplier claims they own the mold designs. They say the brand is registered, the technology is patented, and everything is above board. Three months later, your shipment is detained at the port, a competitor files an infringement suit, and you discover that none of the IP the supplier claimed actually belonged to them. This is not a remote possibility — it is a recurring reality for importers who skip IP verification. Here is exactly how to check trademarks and patents before you commit money, and how to avoid the most expensive IP traps in China sourcing.
When you source from a Chinese factory, you are not just buying a product. You are stepping into a complex web of intellectual property rights — some belonging to the supplier, some to unknown third parties, and some that may be registered in your own name without your knowledge. Failing to verify IP claims before production creates concrete, expensive risks.
A supplier may show you a product catalog, samples, and even production videos — none of which prove they own the underlying intellectual property. Many factories produce goods designed by another company, under a brand owned by a third party, using patented technology licensed (or not licensed) from someone else. If the real IP owner discovers your imports, they can file a complaint with customs authorities or sue for infringement. Your purchase order does not protect you.
This is the nightmare scenario we have seen repeatedly: a buyer develops a product line with a Chinese factory, builds brand recognition in their home market, and then discovers that the factory — or an unrelated third party — has registered that exact brand name with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). Under China's first-to-file trademark system, the registrant owns the mark. Your shipments can be blocked from leaving China. We cover the full mechanics of this trap in detail below.
China has its own patent system, separate from the USPTO, EPO, or any other jurisdiction. A product that does not infringe any patent in your home country may still infringe a valid Chinese patent. Chinese customs authorities have the power to seize goods that violate Chinese IP rights — and they increasingly exercise it. A patent search on CNIPA's database is not optional if you are importing a product with any claimed proprietary features.
"ISO 9001 certified" — with a certificate number and a stamp that looks official. But the certificate belongs to a different company, or it expired two years ago, or the certification body is not accredited. A supplier who fabricates certification claims will not hesitate to fabricate IP claims. Both should be verified through independent channels before you commit to a production run.
Red Flag: A supplier offers you brand-name products at well below market price and claims they "have the rights" but cannot produce a trademark license agreement or patent assignment document. In virtually every case, these are counterfeit goods destined for customs seizure.
CNIPA (国家知识产权局) is the central government authority for trademarks, patents, and other IP rights in China. Its trademark database is the single most important resource for verifying a supplier's trademark claims — and it is free and publicly accessible.
The official trademark search portal is at sbj.cnipa.gov.cn. The interface is in Chinese, but the search logic is straightforward once you understand the fields. For English-speaking buyers, the WIPO Global Brand Database (branddb.wipo.int) also indexes Chinese trademarks and offers an English search interface — though data freshness may lag behind CNIPA's own system by several weeks.
The CNIPA system uses specific Chinese status terms that you need to recognize:
Red Flag: The trademark applicant name does not match the supplier's legal company name on their business license. A supplier claiming ownership of a trademark registered to a completely different entity has no legal right to use that mark — and neither do you.
Red Flag: The trademark is registered to an individual person, not a company. While this can be legitimate (the factory owner registered it personally), it creates risk: if the individual leaves the company, the trademark leaves with them. Always confirm the relationship between the individual registrant and the supplier entity.
Patent verification is more technical than trademark verification, but the principle is the same: do not trust what the supplier says without independent confirmation from the official database.
The primary CNIPA patent search portal is at epub.sipo.gov.cn. This database covers all Chinese patents — invention patents, utility model patents, and design patents — going back to 1985. A more user-friendly alternative is the CNIPA public patent search system at pss-system.cponline.cnipa.gov.cn, which offers advanced search capabilities and machine translation for patent abstracts.
China recognizes three patent categories, and the distinction matters enormously for buyers:
Caution: A supplier tells you their product uses "patented technology" — but the patent number they provide is a utility model, not an invention patent. This means the patent has never been examined on its merits. The claimed technology may be obvious, copied, or already in the public domain. Demand to see an invention patent (发明专利) before relying on a supplier's technology claims to differentiate your product in the market.
When you pull up a patent record on CNIPA's database, check all of the following:
Red Flag: The patent holder on CNIPA is a completely different company from your supplier, and the supplier cannot produce a signed patent license agreement or assignment document. You are almost certainly about to buy from a factory that is manufacturing someone else's patented product without authorization.
Trademark squatting (商标抢注) is one of the most devastating IP traps for foreign buyers sourcing from China — and it is entirely preventable if you understand how the system works and take action early.
You spend 18 months developing a product line with a factory in Zhejiang. You share your brand name, packaging designs, and product specifications. The factory produces your goods, and your brand gains traction in your home market. Then you discover that the factory — or an employee, or a competitor who heard about your sourcing relationship — has registered your brand name as a Chinese trademark. Under China's first-to-file system, that registrant now owns the exclusive right to use your brand in China. They can demand a buyout payment, block your shipments at Chinese customs, or even produce identical goods under your own brand for export to other markets.
The United States and several other common-law jurisdictions operate on a first-to-use trademark system: you acquire rights by actually using the mark in commerce, not by registering it. China operates on a first-to-file system: whoever files the trademark application with CNIPA first owns the rights, regardless of who used the mark first in the marketplace. This means a registration filed by your supplier on January 1 defeats your claim based on five years of prior use in North America. The system does not care about the commercial reality — only the filing date on the CNIPA register.
The single most effective defense against trademark squatting is simple: file your own Chinese trademark application through CNIPA before you share your brand name, logo, or product designs with any Chinese supplier. You do not need a Chinese entity to file — foreign applicants can file directly through CNIPA or via the Madrid Protocol through WIPO. The cost of a Chinese trademark application through a local agent is typically $500 to $1,500, far less than the cost of buying back a squatted mark or abandoning your brand in your most important manufacturing market.
Best Practice: File your trademark in China (and every other country where you manufacture) at the same time you form your company and name your brand. Treat it as part of the incorporation cost, not an afterthought. A Chinese trademark registration costs less than a single customs seizure incident.
CNIPA is the primary source, but a thorough IP due diligence process should also consult these complementary databases:
This is the World Intellectual Property Organization's free search tool covering trademarks from over 70 countries, including China. It offers an English-language interface and the ability to search by brand name, owner, registration number, or image similarity. Use it when you want to check whether a trademark has been registered internationally (including designations in China via the Madrid System) or when you need to verify a supplier's claim that their brand is "registered globally."
The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) maintains a database of IP rights that have been recorded with customs for border enforcement. This is critical because a trademark or patent that is recorded with customs gives the rights holder the power to have shipments detained at the port — exactly the scenario described in our article on customs trademark seizures. If your supplier's product involves a trademark that is recorded with Chinese customs, you need to confirm the authorization chain before production. The customs IP system is accessible through the GACC website, though navigating it typically requires Chinese language capability.
These commercial business data platforms aggregate company registration records, litigation history, and crucially — IP portfolios. When you look up a company on Tianyancha, the "知识产权" (Intellectual Property) tab shows registered trademarks, patents, copyright registrations, and software copyrights associated with that entity. This is often the fastest way to cross-reference whether a supplier's claimed IP matches what government records show. As we detail in our company registration verification guide, these platforms provide a consolidated view that is difficult to replicate by checking individual databases manually.
While these do not replace CNIPA searches, they are useful for English-language patent searches that may surface Chinese-origin patents. Google Patents indexes CNIPA publications with machine-translated English abstracts, and Espacenet (the European Patent Office's database) covers Chinese patent documents. Use these for initial screening, then verify every finding against CNIPA's official database.
In the course of IP verification, you will often encounter suppliers who bolster their credibility with a list of certifications — ISO 9001, ISO 14001, CE marking, FDA registration, and others. These certification claims should be verified with the same rigor you apply to trademark and patent claims.
Red Flag: The certificate is issued to a different company name. This is one of the most common certification fraud patterns — a supplier "borrows" a certificate from a related company, a former employer, or a completely unrelated entity.
Caution: A supplier lists "CE" or "FDA" on their website but the product category you are buying requires specific certification procedures — and the supplier cannot produce test reports from an accredited lab. CE marking has multiple conformity assessment routes depending on the product; not every product can be self-declared. FDA registration requirements vary dramatically by product type. Do not accept general claims — demand specific certificate numbers and verify them.
Finding an IP problem during due diligence is not a failure — it is the entire point of doing due diligence. The question is what to do next.
If CNIPA records show the trademark or patent belongs to a different entity, you have three options. First, ask the supplier to disclose the real IP ownership structure and provide documentation — a license agreement, an assignment, or a corporate relationship between the supplier and the IP holder. Second, contact the actual IP owner directly to negotiate a legitimate license. Third, walk away — a supplier who misrepresents IP ownership at the due diligence stage will misrepresent other things during production.
If someone has already registered your brand as a Chinese trademark, you have legal remedies — but they require Chinese counsel. You can file an opposition (异议) if the trademark application is still pending, a cancellation action (无效宣告) if it has been registered, or a non-use cancellation (撤销三年不使用) if the registrant has not used the mark in China for three consecutive years. These procedures take 6-18 months and cost $2,000-$10,000 depending on complexity. The legal basis typically relies on proving bad faith (the squatter knew of your brand and filed to extort you), or that your brand is well-known in China (a higher evidentiary bar). As detailed in our guide to NNN agreements, a properly structured NNN agreement can help establish evidence of bad faith by documenting that you disclosed your brand to the supplier before their registration date.
If your CNIPA search reveals that the product you plan to import is covered by a valid Chinese patent held by a third party, your options are: redesign the product to work around the patent claims, negotiate a license from the patent holder, or change suppliers to one that has a legitimate license. Continuing with the original supplier while ignoring the patent is not a viable strategy — the patent holder can enforce their rights at Chinese customs, at the port of entry in your country, and through litigation in both jurisdictions.
Engage a Chinese IP lawyer when: (1) you discover your brand has been squatted and you need to file an opposition or cancellation, (2) you receive a cease-and-desist letter or customs detention notice based on IP claims, (3) you are negotiating a patent license or technology transfer from a Chinese entity, (4) you are drafting an NNN agreement that includes IP ownership and registration provisions, or (5) the value of the IP at stake exceeds $10,000. For initial database searches and verification of basic IP ownership records, you do not necessarily need a lawyer — a competent due diligence service covers this at lower cost.
IP verification should not be a one-time panic search performed when something feels wrong. It should be a standard step in your supplier onboarding process, performed before the first purchase order and repeated before each major new product launch. The checklist below captures the minimum verification steps for every supplier relationship:
The cost of skipping these steps is measured in seized shipments, legal fees, destroyed inventory, and lost brand equity. The cost of performing them is measured in hours of database research and a modest due diligence budget. The math is not complicated.
Our Safety Shield desktop due diligence service includes full CNIPA trademark and patent verification, certification authentication, and a consolidated IP risk assessment in English — covering every step on the checklist above. For cases involving suspected squatting or complex IP ownership structures, our Deal Guard service provides in-person negotiation support and on-the-ground investigation.
A single customs seizure costs more than a year of due diligence. Do not find out about an IP problem at the port. Find out at the verification stage, when you still have options.
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