General Jiang Baili discussed in "On National Defense" that national power consists of three elements: people, things (resources) and organizations (systems). Enterprise competitiveness also consists of talents, resources and systems, and intellectual property rights have become important resources for enterprises. The general said: The future war will not be a "military war", but a "national struggle". It will not be a conflict between each other in a certain short period of time, but a long-term and permanent race against each other. The competition among enterprises is a long-term race against each other. Extending General Jiang's words, we successively introduced the enterprise's intellectual property management work.

The topic discussed here is: System Management of Trademarks

Trademarks carry the company’s century-old brand dream, and are often worth over 100 million. Once damaged, it will be a significant loss of assets, and the company’s The number of trademarks is increasing, and they have reached a stage where they must be managed. Intellectual property management tools already have trademark management modules. Conventional trademark management mainly involves monitoring, preventing similar trademark registrations, reminding timely renewals, as well as trademark application, use, withdrawal, preventing generic names, etc... Trademark management matters do not end there. The following is a brief introduction to establishing a trademark management logic module and systematic management based on my experience in brand management in a large group.

1. Management of registered trademarks

(1) Logical classification of registered trademarks

Enterprise registered trademarks have obvious temporary and divergent characteristics and logical Poor relevance. To manage numerous registered trademarks, we must first carry out logical classification and classification, and build a logical management hierarchy. The business community likes to refer to trademarks as brands. According to the product system, brands are subdivided into brands, lines, categories, etc. For example, Procter & Gamble's main brand is "P&G", and its shampoo products include "Pantene", "Rejoice", "Head and Shoulders", "Clairol" and other lines. Under "Clairol" there are also "Hydra Party", " Categories such as "Stay away from frizz" and "Say goodbye to fragility". Procter & Gamble has constructed a 5-level trademark logic hierarchy based on its product system, and ordinary companies can achieve levels 2-3.

The logical hierarchy of establishing trademarks can be established based on the seniority of Chinese families. In this way, even if there are thousands of corporate trademarks, the logical hierarchy will become clear. I call this logical hierarchy "trademark family" ". The trademark family distinguishes the importance of each level and each trademark, so that trademarks at different levels can be protected differently and adopt different protection strategies. The importance of trademarks increases as they go up, and important trademarks need to be protected.

(2) Establish a trademark use management logic module

In practice, the issue of trademark use does not receive enough attention.

The use of trademarks is not only a declaration of rights, but also the promotion and publicity of the brand. The declaration of rights mainly lies in the marking of the registered trademark mark (?). Many companies still do not use the registered trademark mark on their products, causing consumers to not know that the trademark is a registered trademark. In terms of the use of trademarks, compared with big international brands, the use of trademarks by domestic companies is obviously not eye-catching enough, and the visual effect is not as good as that of international brands for consumers to quickly recognize and remember. There are also many legal problems when companies use trademarks, such as arbitrarily changing the font and shape of registered trademarks. Improper use of trademarks may lead to penalties or even trademark cancellation... These companies are not aware enough.

In the process of use, the use of the company's main trademark is particularly important. Good trademarks are always remembered by others, and they often ask for withdrawal. The use evidence provided by the company is always defective, leading to the painful lesson of the trademark being revoked. Already a lot. The use of the company cannot be just a simple use, but also requires a lot of homework, so that you can calmly deal with the lawsuit of withdrawing the company.

There is also a kind of improper use that may become a common name. Improper publicity and improper use by enterprises may lead to trademarks becoming generic. Many such cases have occurred. In other cases, companies passively maintain their trademarks, causing their trademarks to be used as common names by others. For example, the "Daohuaxiang" trademark is considered to be a rice variety.

Group companies also have issues such as internal licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and use of trademarks of holding companies. The entire trademark management is a relatively complex system. It is necessary to establish a logical management module, establish the subsystems of each logical system, and carry out targeted management respectively.

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2. Future trademark registration plan

The market always likes the new and hates the old. New products are constantly emerging and old products are being eliminated. Enterprises with new products need to Arrange trademark registration in a timely manner according to the product research and development process. This issue is often ignored. Even the famous Apple has not done a good job. Because it failed to register trademarks according to the new product layout, "iPhone" and "ipad" were already registered in China, and Apple had to spend a lot of money to register them. purchase.

Future trademark registration planning should be based on trademark families, and registration should be carried out in advance before products enter the market. International registration issues must be considered for future registration, and international registration must be laid out according to the company's internationalization plan. The trademark registration layout of new products involves the collaboration of multiple departments, and this logical module is more complicated.

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Any management has a logical basis, and only when the logic is clear can it be managed smoothly. This article is not a systematic introduction to the logical settings and subsystem logical module settings of trademark management. It only expresses personal views on concepts. Specific questions are welcome to discuss.

December 2021