橡楚编辑部 6/14/2026 54 min read
This article sorts out the trademark acceptance status of Hubei Xiangchu Rubber Co., Ltd. for Class 17 (rubber products related) and Class 35 (advertising and sales related) in detail, covering application progress, business scope covered by corresponding categories, and precautions during the acceptance stage. It provides practical reference experience for trademark layout of LSR and rubber industry enterprises, helping industry enterprises avoid common risks in the trademark application process.
Against the backdrop of growing global demand for high-performance silicone rubber products, intellectual property (IP) protection has emerged as a core competitive asset for materials manufacturing enterprises. Hubei Xiangchu Rubber Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Xiangchu Rubber), a specialized manufacturer of liquid silicone rubber (LSR), thermoplastic elastomers, and custom rubber molded components, has recently submitted trademark registration applications for Class 17 and Class 35 under the Nice Classification system, marking a critical step in the company’s brand standardization and market expansion strategy. This article provides a systematic analysis of the acceptance status, strategic intent, and potential operational impact of the two trademark applications, combined with the operational characteristics of the rubber manufacturing industry and regulatory requirements for trademark review in China.
As of the latest data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), Xiangchu Rubber’s applications for both Class 17 and Class 35 trademarks have entered formal acceptance procedures, with application numbers of 202410372981 and 202410372996 respectively. The acceptance of these applications confirms the initial compliance of the application materials, and the trademarks will undergo subsequent substantive review, opposition period, and registration approval procedures. For a manufacturing enterprise focused on high-performance rubber material R&D and production, the simultaneous layout of product trademarks (Class 17) and service trademarks (Class 35) reflects the company’s dual planning for product identity protection and brand operation capability building, which has important reference significance for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in the rubber industry to carry out IP management.
Before analyzing the specific acceptance status of Xiangchu Rubber’s trademarks, it is necessary to clarify the classification criteria of the two applied categories and the procedural requirements for CNIPA trademark acceptance, to provide a normative basis for subsequent status interpretation.
The Nice Classification, which is universally adopted for trademark registration, divides goods and services into 45 categories, of which Class 17 and Class 35 cover the core business links of rubber manufacturing enterprises from product production to market operation. The specific scope applicable to Xiangchu Rubber’s business is shown in Table 1:
For rubber manufacturing enterprises, Class 17 trademarks belong to the core product category, which is the legal basis for preventing counterfeiters from producing and selling counterfeit rubber products under the enterprise’s brand. Class 35 trademarks, as service categories, cover the whole chain of market operation links such as product sales, brand promotion, and franchise operation, which is a necessary layout for enterprises to expand sales channels and carry out brand licensing. The simultaneous application for the two categories by Xiangchu Rubber covers the full cycle of brand value generation from product production to market circulation, avoiding the legal risk of being squatted by malicious trademark registrants in the sales and service links.
The trademark acceptance procedure is the first link of CNIPA’s review of registration applications, and only applications that meet the formal requirements can obtain the *Trademark Acceptance Notice*. According to the provisions of the *Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China* and the *Trademark Registration Procedures*, the review contents of the acceptance stage include:
Xiangchu Rubber’s two applications were accepted within 12 working days after submission, which is 3 working days faster than the industry average acceptance cycle of 15 working days, indicating that the company’s application materials have high standardization and no formal defects. It should be noted that obtaining the acceptance notice only means that the application enters the substantive review stage, and does not represent that the trademark has been approved for registration. The subsequent substantive review stage (about 6-9 months) will focus on examining the distinctiveness of the trademark, prior similar trademarks, and whether it violates the prohibitive provisions, which is the core link determining whether the trademark can be successfully registered.
As the core category closely related to its main business, the acceptance of Xiangchu Rubber’s Class 17 trademark is of great significance for the company to protect its product R&D achievements and expand the high-performance rubber materials market. This section analyzes the application details, compliance status, and potential review risks of the Class 17 trademark.
According to the public information of CNIPA, the Class 17 trademark applied by Xiangchu Rubber is a combined trademark of text "橡楚" and graphic, with a designated color of black and gray, and the applied goods cover 8 subcategories under Class 17, which fully matches the company’s existing product line. The compliance verification results of the acceptance stage are shown in Table 2:
It is worth noting that Xiangchu Rubber explicitly reserved the right to use the trademark in all gray and black color versions in the application, which can expand the scope of trademark protection to a certain extent and avoid the restriction of exclusive right use caused by color changes in subsequent product packaging and promotion scenarios. In addition, the company has submitted a prior use statement of the trademark in the application materials, including 12 valid proofs such as product packaging samples, sales contracts, and exhibition promotion materials dated from January 2023 to March 2024, which proves that the "橡楚" trademark has been used in the production and operation of Class 17 goods before the application date. This statement will become an important supporting material in the subsequent substantive review stage, especially when encountering prior similar trademark objections, it can prove the company’s prior use intention and certain market influence, and improve the probability of trademark approval.
Although the Class 17 trademark has passed the acceptance procedure, there are still two potential risks in the subsequent substantive review combined with the existing trademark registration data in the rubber industry. First, the risk of similar trademark conflict: as of May 2024, there are 3 valid registered trademarks containing the word "楚" in Class 17, among which the "楚橡" trademark (registration number: 58729143) registered by a rubber enterprise in Hunan in 2022 has a certain similarity in text composition and designated use goods with Xiangchu Rubber’s applied trademark. According to CNIPA’s *Trademark Examination and Trial Standards*, for combined trademarks, the review will focus on the significant identification part of the trademark. The text part of Xiangchu Rubber’s trademark is "橡楚", which is the reverse order of "楚橡", and the graphic part has obvious differences, so the possibility of being judged as a similar trademark is low, but there is still a risk of being cited for rejection. Second, the risk of insufficient distinctiveness: because the first word "橡" directly indicates the raw material characteristics of the applied goods, if the CNIPA review examiner considers that the text part is not sufficiently distinctive, it may require the applicant to submit additional use evidence to prove that the trademark has obtained distinctiveness through long-term use.
In response to the above risks, Xiangchu Rubber can take three response measures in advance: First, collect and sort out more evidence of trademark use, including sales data of "橡楚" brand products (the company’s 2023 "橡楚" series LSR product sales reached 12.6 million yuan, covering 17 provinces and cities across the country), customer evaluation materials, and media publicity reports, to prove that the trademark has formed a stable corresponding relationship with the company’s products. Second, conduct a full similarity search for the cited "楚橡" trademark, confirm that its actual use goods are mainly natural rubber tires, which are different from Xiangchu Rubber’s LSR raw materials and industrial sealing products, and the market consumer groups and sales channels are obviously different, which can be used as a defense reason for non-similarity. Third, if a rejection notice is received, submit a review application within the statutory 15-day period, and attach the above supporting materials to improve the success rate of the review. According to industry data, the pass rate of Class 17 trademark substantive review in the rubber manufacturing industry is about 68%, and the pass rate can be increased to more than 85% by preparing review evidence in advance.
Compared with Class 17 product trademarks, many manufacturing enterprises often ignore the layout of Class 35 service trademarks, leading to the risk of brand being squatted in sales and promotion links. The simultaneous application for Class 35 trademarks by Xiangchu Rubber reflects the company’s forward-looking layout of brand operation, and this section analyzes the strategic value and acceptance status of the application.
Xiangchu Rubber’s Class 35 trademark application covers 4 subcategories: 3501 (advertising), 3502 (business management consulting), 3503 (sales promotion for others), and 3509 (franchise business management). Combined with the company’s 2024-2028 development plan, this application mainly serves three core strategic objectives:
In the acceptance stage, the key review point of Xiangchu Rubber’s Class 35 trademark is the matching between the applied service scope and the applicant’s business scope. Since the business scope of Xiangchu Rubber, as a manufacturing enterprise, does not explicitly include "advertising, business management consulting" and other service contents, the CNIPA once required the company to submit supplementary materials to prove that it has the operational capacity to carry out the relevant services. Xiangchu Rubber submitted the business license amendment notice (the business scope has added "enterprise management consulting, marketing planning" in April 2024), the e-commerce platform entry intention agreement, and the franchise business plan and other materials, and finally passed the acceptance review smoothly. This also reminds manufacturing enterprises that when applying for Class 35 trademarks, they need to ensure that their business scope covers the applied service items, or provide proof of the rationality of the business layout, otherwise they may be rejected in the acceptance stage.
The layout of Class 35 trademarks has three important strategic values for Xiangchu Rubber, which are unmatched by product trademarks:
First, it improves the integrity of the company’s IP protection system. According to the statistical data of the China Rubber Industry Association, as of 2023, only 32% of small and medium-sized rubber manufacturing enterprises in China have registered Class 35 trademarks, and 47% of enterprises have encountered the problem that third parties use their brand names to sell counterfeit products on e-commerce platforms. Because the counterfeiters’ behavior belongs to the sales service link, if the enterprise does not have a Class 35 trademark, it will face greater obstacles in rights protection. The successful registration of the Class 35 trademark will enable Xiangchu Rubber to carry out rights protection for counterfeit sales behaviors on all channels, and the rights protection success rate can be increased by more than 60% compared with that without a Class 35 trademark.
Second, it supports the company’s transformation from product supplier to overall solution provider. Xiangchu Rubber’s current business is dominated by LSR raw material sales and custom component processing, and the company plans to launch "integrated solutions for LSR product production" for downstream customers in the medical device and automotive electronics industries in the future, including raw material supply, production line transformation, staff training, and brand authorization. The Class 35 trademark covers the service contents of business management consulting and sales promotion, which provides brand support for the company to charge service fees in the solution business, and distinguishes it from traditional raw material sales business, which is conducive to improving the added value of the brand.
Third, it lays a foundation for the company’s subsequent market financing and merger and acquisition activities. In the investment and financing activities of the manufacturing industry, the integrity of the trademark layout is an important evaluation index of the enterprise’s intangible assets. According to the evaluation standard of the China Intellectual Property Appraisal Association, for manufacturing enterprises with annual sales of 10-50 million yuan, the value contribution of Class 35 trademarks to the overall brand assets is about 15%-20%. After the successful registration of Xiangchu Rubber’s two trademarks, the estimated total value of intangible assets of the brand will reach 8-10 million yuan, which will help improve the company’s valuation level in the planned Series A financing in 2025.
The trademark application practice of Xiangchu Rubber provides a reference sample for small and medium-sized rubber manufacturing enterprises to carry out IP management. Combined with the industry’s IP protection pain points, enterprises can build a full-cycle trademark management system from the following three aspects.
Before submitting a trademark application, enterprises should first carry out a full category layout according to their own development plans, rather than only registering core product categories. For rubber manufacturing enterprises, in addition to Class 17 and Class 35, they can also increase the layout of Class 7 (rubber processing machinery), Class 40 (rubber material processing services), and Class 42 (material R&D technical services) according to business needs, to form a multi-dimensional trademark protection system. Second, enterprises should conduct a full prior trademark search before application, focusing on checking similar trademarks in the same category, and adjust the trademark pattern or add distinctive elements in time if there is a conflict risk, to reduce the probability of rejection. For example, Xiangchu Rubber added a graphic design of rubber molecular chain to its trademark, which effectively reduced the similarity risk with the prior "楚橡" trademark. Third, enterprises should retain evidence of trademark use 6-12 months before application, including product packaging, sales contracts, and promotion materials, which can provide strong support for subsequent review and opposition procedures.
After the trademark application is accepted, enterprises should establish a dynamic tracking mechanism, check the review progress every 1-2 months, and respond to the rejection notice or opposition notice within the statutory time limit. According to the data of the CNIPA, about 23% of Class 17 trademark applications will receive a rejection notice in the substantive review stage, and about 17% of applications will encounter third-party objections during the 3-month opposition period. If the enterprise does not respond in time, it will directly lead to the failure of the trademark application. For rejected applications, enterprises can improve the success rate of review by submitting evidence of prior use, proving the difference of goods/services, and explaining the distinctiveness of the trademark. For example, in 2023, a silicone rubber enterprise in Guangdong responded to the rejection notice by submitting sales data, customer testimony, and market survey reports, and finally obtained the registration of the Class 17 trademark with a review success rate of 72%. In addition, enterprises can also monitor the trademark application behavior of competitors in the same industry during the review period, and file opposition applications in time for malicious squatting trademarks to protect their own rights and interests.
After the trademark is successfully registered, enterprises should pay attention to the standardization of trademark use, avoid changing