Nowadays, trademark registration also requires certain conditions. What are the conditions for these trademark registrations? The editor has brought you relevant knowledge about "trademark registration conditions", which may be what you need. of. Conditions that a trademark applied for registration should meet

(1) The trademark applied for registration must have constituent elements;

(2) The trademark applied for registration should be distinctive;

(3) The trademark applied for registration shall not use signs prohibited by law.

(4) The trademark applied for registration shall not be identical or similar to the trademark that has been registered or preliminarily approved by others for the same or similar goods or services.

(5) The trademark applied for registration shall not be identical or similar to a registered trademark that has been revoked or canceled for less than one year. What are the manifestations of the conflict between trademark and trade name rights?

The so-called conflict of rights refers to the legal modality in which two or more rights derived from the same object are contradictory or conflicting with each other①. As for trademark rights and trade name rights, the so-called conflict of rights refers to the conflict of rights between trademark rights and trade name rights obtained by different civil subjects based on the same object in accordance with legal procedures②. In practice, the conflict of rights between trademarks and trade names mainly manifests itself in the following two forms:

1. Registering and using words that are the same or similar to others’ registered trademarks as part of the company name (i.e., trade name);

p>

In addition, the case of Shanghai Benz Automobile Maintenance Company registering the registered trademark "Benz" of Germany's Daimler-Benz AG as a corporate trade name also falls into this category.

2. Register words that are identical or similar to a part of someone else’s previously registered business name (i.e. trade name) as a trademark.

At present, due to advanced information dissemination methods, the time for establishing trademark visibility is getting shorter and shorter. In comparison, the opportunity and difficulty of creating visibility for a business name are much greater, so the trademark is registered as The situation of a trade name is far more common than the situation of registering a trade name as a trademark. What are the reasons for the conflict of rights between trademarks and trade names?

The main reasons for the conflict of rights between trademarks and trade names are as follows:

1. There is similarity in the composition of trademarks and trade names (both Chinese characters can be used) and have the same function (both are carriers of goodwill).

A trademark is a sign used by producers and operators on their goods or services to distinguish the source of goods or services. In short, a trademark is a sign of goods or services. Its basic function is to distinguish between different goods or services. goods or services. According to Article 8 of my country’s Trademark Law, any visible mark that can distinguish the goods of a natural person, legal person or other organization from the goods of others, including words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and color combinations , and combinations of the above elements can be applied for registration as trademarks. It can be seen that the constituent elements of a trademark are quite extensive, and among these elements, characters have become one of the more commonly used constituent elements of trademarks because they have the advantages of clear expression of meaning, good visual effects, and easy recognition and memory.

Trade name is the common name for the font size in the name of an enterprise. It is a specific name used by commodity producers or operators in commercial transactions in order to indicate characteristics that are different from other commodity producers or operators. According to Article 7 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Regulations" and Article 9 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Implementation Measures" issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the enterprise name shall consist of administrative division, trade name, industry, and organizational form in order. The legal , except where otherwise provided by administrative regulations. Since the company name is the code name of the company, and its most basic function is to distinguish other producers or operators, the company name is unique and is not allowed to be the same. Within the same administrative region, the administrative division, industry, and organizational form of the company name components can be the same, but the only thing that is not allowed to be the same is the trade name. It can be seen that the trade name is not only one of the legal components of the company name, but also the most critical core part. Only it has real identification value. Ordinary consumers will only remember the company's trade name, but rarely the complete name of the company.

According to Article 8 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Implementation Measures": Enterprise names should use Chinese characters that comply with national standards, and Chinese pinyin letters and Arabic numerals are not allowed. As part of the company name, the trade name should of course also use Chinese characters. Therefore, from the perspective of the composition of trademarks and trade names, there are obviously more elements that constitute a trademark than those that constitute a trade name. However, their only common component is Chinese characters. This means that any trade name that meets the conditions stipulated in the Trademark Law can be registered as a trademark with the approval of the Trademark Office. Similarly, an enterprise can also turn a registered trademark into its own trade name with the approval of the industrial and commercial administration department. Although trademarks are used to distinguish different goods, and trade names are used to distinguish different companies, since goods are produced by companies, and our country allows some industries to appropriately simplify their names, the simplified names are mostly trade names, so , consumers often associate trademarks with trade names, causing confusion.

At the same time, trademarks and trade names not only have the most basic distinguishing functions, but also companies have accumulated business reputation through long-term operations, which can attract consumers and bring good economic benefits to the company. . For ordinary consumers, a trademark or trade name represents the business reputation of an enterprise.

It is this similarity in composition and the same function that provides the possibility for rights conflicts to occur.

2. The approval agencies and procedures for trademark and trade name rights are different, which is also the root cause of rights conflicts. It is manifested as:

(1) The authorities that approve rights are different

The commonly referred to trademark rights are trademark exclusive rights, which are the exclusive rights of trademark owners to use their trademarks. . This exclusive right of use is an exclusive and exclusive right, and others may not use it without the permission of the trademark owner. This means that trademark rights are absolute rights, not the right to use trademarks in a general sense. Any organization or individual that needs to obtain the exclusive right to use a trademark must apply for trademark registration with the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is also the only agency responsible for trademark registration and approval in my country.

Although there are no clear provisions on the right to trade names in our country’s current laws, the “General Principles of Civil Law” does stipulate the right to corporate names. Enterprise name right refers to the exclusive right that an enterprise enjoys in accordance with the law to the business distinguishing marks it uses or registers. Since the trade name is part of the enterprise name, the trade name right is subordinate to the name right, and the legal provisions on the name right also apply to the trade name right. At present, my country implements a hierarchical approval system for enterprise name rights, that is, enterprise names are approved by the industrial and commercial administration bureaus at all levels based on the name of the administrative division used in the name. The name of the administrative division used in the enterprise name will be approved by that level. Approved by the Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau. National enterprises shall be approved and registered by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and other enterprises shall be approved and registered by the local provincial, municipal, and county industrial and commercial bureaus. Enterprise names that use the names of municipal districts and municipal administrative divisions shall be approved by the Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce. Enterprise names used in conjunction with provincial, city, and county administrative divisions shall be approved by the industrial and commercial administration bureau of the highest-level administrative region. The right to the company name is obtained after approval and registration.

It can be seen from this that although the approval of trademark rights and trade name rights is exercised by the industrial and commercial administrative agencies, the approval of trademark rights is exercised by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, while the approval of trade names is exercised by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The approval power is exercised by the industrial and commercial administration bureaus at all levels across the country. Due to the different approval agencies for trademark rights and trade name rights, and currently the resources of both parties cannot be fully shared, it is possible for trademarks and trade names with the same words to exist at the same time. sex.

(2) The procedures for rights approval are different

In my country, trademarks are registered centrally, and are uniformly accepted and reviewed by the Trademark Office. Once a trademark is registered, it is valid nationwide. .

Trademark registration generally requires the following procedures: the trademark applicant submits an application, and the Trademark Office will conduct a preliminary review after receiving the application to determine whether it is the same or similar to a registered trademark in the same industry across the country. After preliminary approval, an announcement will be made. During the announcement period, any unit or individual may raise objections. If no objection is raised by the announcement period or the objection cannot be established, the registration will be approved, a trademark registration certificate will be issued, and the trademark will be announced.

It can be seen that obtaining exclusive rights for a trademark requires a strict review process to ensure that the trademark has exclusive rights for similar goods or services. It is this strict procedure that has greatly reduced the number of registrations for similar goods or services nationwide. The probability of occurrence of the same or similar trademark.

The procedures for business name approval are much simpler in comparison. Roughly speaking, the industrial and commercial administration at the corresponding level will search whether there are identical or similar enterprise names in the administrative region based on the name that the enterprise intends to use. If there is no similarity, the enterprise will obtain the exclusive right to use the name, and its trade name rights will also be generated at the same time. Since the industrial and commercial administration bureaus at all levels separately approve the names of enterprises in their respective administrative jurisdictions, it is possible for a large number of identical business names to appear in different regions. For example, if the Nanjing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce approves an enterprise's use of the brand name "Procter & Gamble", the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce can also approve the enterprise's use of the brand name "Procter & Gamble" according to current laws. At the same time, the names of these companies are all obtained with the approval of the industrial and commercial administration department. If these companies with the same trade name apply for registered trademarks using the trade name "Procter & Gamble", there will be a legal conflict between trademark rights and trade name rights, which will also cause The occurrence of actual conflict cases provides the possibility.

It is precisely because the rights approval agencies and procedures for trademarks and trade names are different, that is, trademarks are approved by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, while trade names are approved by the Administration for Industry and Commerce at all levels, and at present, the resources of both parties are insufficient* In the case of ** sharing, this provides the possibility for trademarks and trade names using the same words to coexist.

Trademark registration conditionsTrademark registration