Trademark registration frequently asked questions

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a trademark used by a producer or business operator in the production, manufacturing, processing, selection or distribution of goods or services to distinguish the source of goods or services.

The trademark applied for registration may be a text, graphics, or a combination of text and graphics and a three-dimensional trademark.

Why is trademark the soul of an enterprise?

Consumers remember and choose products and services through the trademark logo and name, a good legal protection of the trademark can carry out positive development, without legal protection of the trademark is easy to be registered by others in the best development, so that consumers to use the trademark of the product or service of the real source of confusion, resulting in heavy losses to the enterprise.

How are trademarks classified?

According to the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Registration of Trademarks, trademarks are divided into 45 categories. Among them, Class 1-34 is a commodity mark, and class 35-45 is a service mark.

What is a trademark query?

Trademark inquiry refers to the trademark registration applicant personally or entrust a trademark agent to the trademark registration office to inquire about the registration of the trademark registration, in order to know whether the trademark that he intends to apply for registration is the same or similar to the trademark that has been registered or is being registered by others. The inquiry before the application is an important step to apply for trademark registration, although the inquiry results do not have legal effect, but it can make the trademark registration applicant know well, reduce blindness, so it can greatly reduce the cost of expenses at the same time, for more application time.

What procedures does trademark registration involve?

Trademark registration procedures are divided into necessary procedures and special procedures. The necessary procedure is the registration procedure that the applicant must go through to apply for trademark registration, which includes: trademark registration application, examination (form, substance), examination and announcement, registration and announcement of four procedures. The special procedure is the remedy procedure used in the process of trademark registration when there is a contradiction, conflict or other reasons, and it is not a necessary procedure, including: trademark rejection review, trademark opposition review, trademark dispute and other three procedures.

How long does it take for a trademark to be approved?

In China, the time for a trademark application to be approved for registration depends on the case. If the trademark application in the legal procedures are very smooth, it generally takes about 1 year. However, if the trademark application appears in the review procedure of the trademark Office issued a notice of correction, review opinions, or enters the special procedure, that is, the trademark application is opposed by others after the preliminary examination and announcement or the trademark application is rejected after the application for review, the trademark application is finally approved for registration will take longer time.

Can an enterprise name be registered as a trademark?

If the significant part of the enterprise name is significant, the significant part may be approved for registration as a trademark if it does not conflict with the prior rights of the trademark. On the contrary, the significant part of the enterprise name is common or not significant, it is impossible to be registered as a trademark.

Do simplified Chinese characters and traditional Chinese characters have the same effect when applying for registration of Chinese character trademarks?

To apply for trademark registration of Chinese characters in China, according to the custom of the Chinese people, simplified characters are the best, but there is no objection to using traditional characters as trademarks. The simple character trademark and its traditional character trademark are exactly the same in pronunciation, meaning, composition and other factors to determine whether the trademark is the same and similar, the difference only lies in the simplicity of the stroke, which is determined by the characteristics of Chinese characters and the Chinese writing tradition. Therefore, whether it is a simplified character trademark or a traditional character trademark, its trademark connotation is protected to the same degree after being approved for registration. In other words, if the trademark of one font is allowed to be registered, the trademark of the other font will naturally be equally protected.

When applying for trademark registration, what problems should be paid attention to when creating the trademark?

When applying for trademark registration in China, the creation of a trademark should be as far as possible to create meaningless or suggestive words or graphics, to avoid violating the requirements of the prohibited provisions of Article 10 and Article 11 of the Trademark Law, especially the generic name and graphics of the goods in Article 11, paragraph 1, the directly descriptive words of the functions and other characteristics of the goods in Article 11, paragraph 2, and the place name known to the public without second meaning. The words or images of the negative social impact brought by the trademark should be considered from the perspective of China's social morality.

Can a registered trademark of a specified colour be used in black and white?

If a registered trademark of a specified color changes its color during use, it shall be an act of voluntarily changing the registered trademark, and the administrative authority for industry and commerce shall order it to make corrections within a time limit until it reports to the Trademark Office for cancellation of the registered trademark. On the contrary, registered black and white trademarks, the law does not prohibit the use of color, but the color is not protected.

If a registered printed Chinese character trademark is actually used in the artistic form of the Chinese character, does it belong to changing the text of the registered trademark on its own?

The trademark should be used in strict accordance with the approved trademark font, that is, it is exactly the same as the approved registration and registered in the register and registration certificate. The above use belongs to the text of the registered trademark. The font has a great relationship with the appearance of the trademark, such as changing the font and the appearance of the trademark similar to others, may cause trademark infringement.

How can trademarks be legally protected?

According to the law of our country, only the trademark approved by the State trademark office can get legal protection.

Once a trademark is registered, the registrant shall enjoy the exclusive right to use the trademark, and no one shall use the trademark or any trademark similar to the trademark on the same or similar goods without the consent of the registrant. Otherwise, it will constitute trademark infringement and be investigated for legal responsibility.

If it is found that another person has published or approved a registered trademark is very similar to his own trademark that has been previously registered on similar goods, what legal means can be taken to revoke the trademark?

If it is found that the trademark published by another person in the first instance is similar to the trademark registered on similar goods, it may, within three months from the date of announcement, file an objection with the Trademark Office to prevent its registration. If another person's registered trademark is similar to his registered trademark on similar goods, he may, within one year from the date of approval of the registration by the Trademark Office, file a dispute request with the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to apply for the cancellation of the registered trademark.

How should I seek legal protection when I find that others have infringed my exclusive right to use my registered trademark?

To protect the exclusive right of trademark, our country adopts two ways, namely, by the industrial and commercial administrative organs to investigate the infringement of trademark, or by the people's court to investigate the infringer's civil responsibility. The parties may choose either of the two ways, but they may not choose to bring a suit in a people's court and at the same time request the administrative department for industry and commerce to carry out administrative processing.

If a trademark infringement action is brought directly to a people's court, it shall be a civil action and shall be conducted in accordance with the procedures prescribed in the Civil Procedure Law. The people's court will make a judgment in accordance with the General Principles of the Civil Law and the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, requiring the infringer to stop the infringement, compensate for the loss and eliminate the impact.

The administrative organs for industry and commerce handle cases with the following characteristics: quick action, simple procedure and short time required to close the case; The people's courts try cases with strict procedures and pay attention to civil relief. Therefore, the parties should choose the handling agency according to the characteristics of the case, so as to effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests.

What is the territoriality of trademark rights? How to expand the territoriality of trademark rights?

Territoriality of trademark rights refers to the trademark rights granted by a country or region in accordance with its own trademark law or trademark treaties in the region, which are valid only in that country or region, and have no binding force on other countries or countries outside the region. That is, trademark rights granted in one country are not protected if they are not registered in another country. For example, if a trademark is registered in the United States but not in China, this trademark is protected by law only in the United States but not in China. If this trademark is used in our country, it is regarded as an unregistered trademark, and if it is similar to the trademark registered in our country, it will be prohibited to use. Vice versa, if the trademark registered in our country is not registered in other countries, the trademark can not be protected in other countries. Therefore, if enterprises are interested in pushing their products to the international market, they should timely register trademarks in the countries where the products are exported.

Can a registered trademark be transferred? How to transfer?

As a civil right, a registered trademark can be transferred, but it must perform certain legal procedures, that is, entrust a trademark agent to handle the transfer procedures in the trademark Office.

Where a registered trademark is transferred, the trademark registrant must transfer the same or similar trademark registered on the same or similar goods and go through the formalities for transfer registration at the same time; otherwise, the Trademark Office shall not transfer the registration. The reason for this provision is to prevent the same trademark or similar trademark registered in the same or similar goods from being owned by different registrants, so as to ensure the differentiation of the trademark.

For the application for the transfer of a registered trademark, the Trademark Office will review, in line with the law to approve, the transfer of matters recorded in the "trademark register" and be announced, at the same time issued to the transferee trademark transfer certificate, so far, the transferor of the trademark is completed, the transfer has legal effect, the transferee becomes the trademark registrant, enjoy the corresponding rights.

What is a well-known trademark?

A well-known trademark, as the name implies, is a trademark that has a high reputation and is well known to the public. The term "well-known marks" comes from the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which stipulates that member states shall give well-known marks greater protection than ordinary marks.

How long is the validity period of registered trademark in China? How to renew a trademark when it expires?

The term of validity of a registered trademark is 10 years, calculated from the date of approval of the registration. If the trademark registrant still wants to use the trademark after the expiration of the validity period of the trademark registration, the trademark exclusive right can be extended by going through the trademark renewal procedures. It is very important for registrants to handle trademark renewal procedures in a timely manner. A trademark is a sign that distinguishes the products of one enterprise from those of another. In order to enable consumers to remember the enterprise and its products, the enterprise should continue to use its trademark, and in order to maintain its existing influence, it should also continue to use it. As long as the trademark registrant goes through the renewal procedure on time according to this procedure, it can in fact make the trademark right permanent.