The property value of a trademark lies in its reputation. Licensing others to use the trademark means that the reputation of the trademark is attached to the behavior of the licensee and the goods it provides. Therefore, the quality control in the licensing contract is an extremely important content. There are many lessons to be noted in this regard. Qingdao soda plant was once one of the eight major carbonated beverage production bases in China, and the products represented by "Laoshan Coke" were very popular in the market. However, the factory was eager for quick success and instant benefit, and rashly licensed 144 domestic enterprises to use the "Laoshan" trademark. Due to the lack of necessary quality assurance measures, the quality of goods has dropped sharply, which directly affects the reputation of trademarks.
Later, although the person in charge of the factory changed many times, the factory's abuse of license has been lacking effective control, which led to the decline of its trademark reputation and seriously affected the survival of enterprises. Taking 1998 as an example, the product sales of Qingdao Laoshan Mineral Water Co., Ltd. in Qingdao are100000 RMB, while the sales of Wahaha purified water in Qingdao are 40 million RMB.
2. Choose partners carefully.
Commodity quality control For licensors, first of all, we should carefully choose partners and let those enterprises with good production capacity, high management level and strong performance ability be licensees. Before granting the license, Licensor shall inspect and test the legal person qualification, production capacity, management level and product quality of Licensee. Those who can't meet the same quality standards as their own products can't sell their licenses. After the licensing contract is concluded, the licensor should pay close attention to the production and sales of the licensee to prevent the licensee from any phenomenon that damages the trademark reputation in terms of product quality and after-sales service.
During the term of the contract, Licensor has the responsibility to supervise the production process, technical production, product inspection and management of Licensee. When the licensee's products can't meet the quality of the licensed registered trademark, the licensor shall take decisive measures to prevent the situation from developing further, and if necessary, it shall explicitly terminate the contract and withdraw the trademark license right.
3. Maintain the trademark rights wholeheartedly.
The licensor has the obligation to ensure the certainty and stability of the licensed trademark right and safeguard the licensee's right to use it. Specifically, Licensor shall ensure that the registered trademark under this contract is authentic and reliable, and it is a commodity trademark or service trademark registered by the trademark authority, and the trademark is still within the validity period of legal protection.
Licensor shall not sign an exclusive license contract with more than two enterprises in the same area, resulting in a conflict between the right to use of more than two licensees. During the validity period of the contract, Licensor shall not transfer the registered trademark to a third party without authorization. If it is really necessary to transfer a registered trademark, it is necessary to explain the situation to the licensee, obtain the consent of the licensee or terminate the license contract with the licensee.
The licensor shall also take effective measures to safeguard its trademark rights and bear the necessary expenses, such as renewing the trademark in time. For trademark infringement in the market, if it is an exclusive license or an exclusive use license, the licensee can file a lawsuit and the licensor actively participates in cooperative litigation. If it is a general license, the licensor will sue, but the licensee should inform the licensor of the facts and evidence of infringement in time.
4. The supervision of trademark use cannot be relaxed.
How to maintain the reputation of trademarks, prevent the quality of goods using trademarks from getting out of control, harm the interests of trademark owners and protect the rights and interests of consumers is an important task of enterprise trademark management. The contents of supervision over the use of trademarks by licensees include: First, the licensed trademarks must be consistent with the registered trademarks. The licensee's use of the registered trademark is the same as the owner's own use, and it is limited to the registered trademark and the goods approved for use. Shall not exceed the approved scope of goods, and shall not arbitrarily modify the text and graphics of a registered trademark.
At the same time, the licensee must also use the licensed goods in accordance with the contract. Second, the licensed goods should indicate the name of the licensee and the place of origin of the goods. In the practice of trademark licensing, some licensed enterprises not only use the licensor's trademark, but also use the licensor's factory name and the origin name of the goods together. This kind of behavior is easy to mislead consumers, and may also adversely affect the corporate image and business reputation of the licensor.
In order to prevent the legitimate rights and interests of trademark owners and consumers from being infringed by trademark license, trademark owners, as licensors, should also pay attention to the supervision of the licensee's use of trademarks to prevent things that are not conducive to the reputation of enterprises and commodities.
5, the cost of trademark promotion and the benefits generated by the use should match.
The reasonable allocation of trademark promotion costs between licensors and licensees, or between multiple licensees, is the basis for the sustainable growth of trademark value.
Chain operation has solved this problem scientifically in trademark licensing. By collecting management fees, the chain headquarters is responsible for brand maintenance and promotion, and the franchised enterprises are responsible for regional promotion while using them, so as to realize the reasonable distribution of promotion expenses.
In the licensing agreement, the principle of sharing the cost of trademark promotion should be clarified, and the free-riding behavior that only benefits without investment should be restricted or stopped to maintain the enthusiasm of other users to promote trademarks.