1. Is trademark inquiry free in the Mainland? Trademark inquiry is free. After the trademark management department grants the trademark rights, the trademark will be announced, and anyone can inquire about the relevant announcements. Article 33 of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China: For a trademark that has been initially approved and announced, within three months from the date of announcement, if the prior rights holder or interested party believes that it violates Article 13 of this Law, Paragraphs 2 and 3, Article 15, Paragraph 1 of Article 16, Article 30, Article 31, and Article 32, or any person believes that it violates Article 10 or Articles 11 and 12 provide that objections may be filed with the Trademark Office. If there is no objection at the expiration of the announcement period, the registration will be approved, a trademark registration certificate will be issued, and the announcement will be made. Article 47 A registered trademark declared invalid in accordance with the provisions of Articles 44 and 45 of this Law shall be announced by the Trademark Office, and the exclusive right to use the registered trademark shall be deemed to have ceased to exist from the beginning. 2. Is it troublesome for individuals to apply for trademarks by themselves? 1. Trademark inquiry and analysis. There are certain risks in trademark registration because the registered trademark is entered into the Trademark Office's computer database only after the acceptance notice is issued, and it usually takes about one month to receive the acceptance notice. Therefore, trademarks that have been registered before and no acceptance notice has been issued form a blind search area. It is recommended to conduct a trademark search with an agency registered with the Trademark Office before registration to check for identical and similar trademarks to reduce risks and increase the success rate. 2. Go through the application procedures and submit the application materials to the Trademark Office. After preparing the application documents and submitting them to the Trademark Office, you can get the submission list receipt from the Trademark Office on the same day. The list receipt has the "accepted" stamp and receipt of the Trademark Office through the center. date, proving that the Trademark Office has received the relevant application documents. 3. The Trademark Office will issue an acceptance notice 1 to 3 months after receiving the application documents. Receipt of the "Acceptance Notice" proves that the trademark has passed the formal examination and entered the substantive examination stage. It will take about one year after the "Notice of Acceptance" for the substantive examination to be completed. For trademarks that pass the substantive examination, the Trademark Office will issue a preliminary approval announcement, and the announcement period is three months. 4. If the preliminary approval announcement period expires and there is no objection, the Trademark Office will issue a registration announcement to prove that the trademark has been approved. The applicant has obtained the exclusive right to the trademark. It will take about one month from the date of the announcement to obtain the trademark registration certificate. Searching for trademark rights is not like patent or intellectual property rights, and you have to pay corresponding search fees. Therefore, if you have any objections to certain trademarks, you can first inquire clearly before taking the next step. Especially in order to avoid malicious trademark registration or infringement, you should apply to the Trademark Office for registration before making clear inquiries. Not only may it not pass, it may even cause other additional losses.