Legal Analysis of Civil-Criminal Intersection in Bad-Faith Trademark Litigation

WISECODE Take

The study on bad-faith trademark litigation published on August 14, 2026, points out that Articles 81 and 85 of the newly revised Trademark Law have incorporated bad-faith litigation into criminal liability. Many mistakenly believe this regulatory change only affects local entities and is irrelevant to Taiwanese enterprises. In my view, this indicates that the grey arbitrage space of 'squatting and extorting' is being rapidly shut down by criminal penalties. Statistics show that from July 2022 to September 2024, procuratorial organs transferred 175 clues of suspected crimes. For instance, a company squatted over ten trademarks the day after a listed company announced its name change and claimed nearly 10 million RMB; such acts will now face direct criminal prosecution. This provides significant protection for legitimate brand owners. For legitimately operating businesses, this change poses zero compliance risk but rather reduces extortion risks. If you face trademark litigation threats in the mainland market, Intellex's trademark monitoring service can help intercept such malicious registrations at an early stage. I recommend two actions. First, do not settle easily when facing malicious claims; actively collect evidence of the other party's lack of actual operation and bulk squatting to report to judicial organs. Second, proactively register core trademarks before entering new markets to leave no room for malicious actors.