How to register a trademark for a company in Shanghai? Let’s take a look at the process of trademark registration for a company in Shanghai brought to you by the editor below. Maybe there is what you need. . What are the regulations on the trademark registration process and time?
1. Design? Before applying for trademark registration, you can entrust our company or design by yourself. When designing a trademark, you should pay attention to the following points: (1) Originality, that is, the design of the trademark must be innovative; on the one hand, it must meet the requirements for distinctiveness, and on the other hand, a creative trademark can easily expand the visibility of the product and quickly occupy the market. (2) The name of the trademark should avoid being associated with the function of the product. (3) The design of the trademark should highlight the theme and be reasonably laid out.
2. Inquiry? Trademark inquiry usually refers to an inquiry about trademark information conducted by a trademark registration applicant before applying to register a trademark in order to understand whether there are any prior trademark rights that may conflict with the trademark he or she is applying for. . It takes a long time for a trademark to be applied for and approved for registration. If the trademark registration application is rejected, on the one hand, the trademark registration fee will be lost; on the other hand, it will take longer to reapply for a registered trademark, and it is still unknown whether the re-application will be approved for registration. Therefore, it is best for applicants to conduct a trademark search to understand the status of prior rights before applying to register a trademark. There are two types of inquiry services: one is internal inquiry service; the other is agency government inquiry service, which takes 7-14 working days.
3. Application? Submit the trademark registration application documents to the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department.
4. Acceptance? After the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department receives the trademark registration application materials, it will give an application number and issue an acceptance notice. It will take about one week.
5. Review? Trademark review is divided into two processes: formal review and substantive review. Formal examination means that before reviewing the application, the Trademark Registry will review the application form and all attachments in detail to see whether the required parts of the form have been completed, whether the relevant information is correct, and whether the required information is incomplete. If everything is in order, the application process will enter the next stage (substantive examination stage). After the substantive examination is completed to check the deficiencies of the application and confirm that all the information is complete, the Trademark Registry will check the trademark records to determine whether other merchants have registered or applied for registration of the same or similar goods or services. 's trademark. The Trademark Registry will also check whether the trademark concerned complies with the registration requirements stipulated in the Trademark Ordinance. If approved, the application process will enter the next stage (the gazette announcement stage).
6. Announcement? After the Trademark Registry approves the application, it will be announced in the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Gazette for a period of three months. If no one raises any objection, the trademark can be successfully registered.
7. Registration? If there is no objection to the trademark announcement or the objection is ruled untenable, the registration is successful. Under normal circumstances, it takes about 6 months to obtain the registration certificate. After successful registration, it will be valid for 10 years and can be renewed on time six months before expiration. Trademark squatting is a product of the first-to-file principle of the Trademark Law
In the past two years, news about trademark squatting has become a hot topic. Last year, a company in China (Shenzhen) rushed to register a batch of trademarks that are already well-known to the public. Among the registered trademarks are well-known trademarks such as "Changhong" and "Panda", as well as well-known trademarks such as "Shuanglu" and "Darcissus". trademark. After registering the trademark, China (Shenzhen) Foreign Trade Center Co., Ltd. clearly marked the price and contacted the trademark transfer, which was a malicious registration act. The Trademark Office of the China Administration for Industry and Commerce has revoked 67 trademarks registered by the company through improper means in accordance with the law. Soon thereafter, as the Viagra whirlwind swept the world, many domestic companies rushed to register the Chinese trademark "Viagra". In this "Viagra" trademark melee, Shenyang Feilong Company took the lead and successfully registered the "Viagra" trademark. Viagra Kaitai was very impressive, but its good times did not last long. Viagra Kaitai Jiaoxiang was investigated and dealt with as an inferior drug by relevant departments. The right and wrong and twists and turns are not the content of this article, so we will skip it. The Shenyang Feilong registration of the trademark "Viagra" alone is enough to once again draw people's attention to the issue of trademark registration.
When it’s time to take action, don’t hesitate
Trademark squatting can be divided into narrow and broad senses. Trademark squatting in the narrow sense refers to registering the trademark before the original trademark owner to gain economic benefits. Competing interests. In a broad sense, trademark squatting can include the above situations, as well as the competitive behavior of squatting to register other people's famous company names or other names with a certain reputation in society as one's own trademark in order to obtain economic benefits.
In the past, our country has been in a planned economy for a long time. Trademarks played a very small role in the circulation field, and the trademark awareness of the whole society was relatively weak. This situation is reflected in foreign trade. Some import and export enterprises do not pay enough attention to trademarks. In recent years, a large number of trademarks for my country’s export goods (services) have been registered abroad. The squatters focus on high-profile and good market reputation. It has caused huge economic losses to our country. Examples abound: Beijing Tongrentang, founded in the eighth year of Kangxi's reign, was the emperor's imperial pharmacy and has a history of more than 300 years. It has been registered in Japan by Japanese businessmen, making it difficult for Japanese people who trust traditional Chinese medicine to find authentic products. ?Tongrentang? Japan Tongrentang has made a lot of money in the name of China Tongrentang.
Trademarks are monopolistic. When a trademark is registered in a certain country or region, if it is not bought back at a high price or the temporary use rights are purchased, it will be permanently lost in that country or region. market. However, the laws of some countries allow the person who has been squatted to produce sufficient evidence to overturn the ruling according to law. However, because Chinese companies rarely do the work of collecting evidence of trademark use, they can only give up on already beneficial litigation.
With the further development of the market economy in our country, a certain scale of "trademark squatting war" has also emerged among domestic enterprises. Due to their weak awareness of trademark registration, many companies fail to apply for registration of their trademarks in time, resulting in their already popular brands being registered by others, causing unnecessary losses to themselves. Guangdong Qiangli Group's "Qiangqiang" beverage sells well in the Northeast market, but the company did not apply for registration of the "Qiangqiang" trademark with the Trademark Office. Later, a small factory registered the "Qiangqiang" trademark first, and Qiangqiang Company continued to use this trademark. A trademark was deemed to be infringing, and Qiangli Company had to spend 350,000 yuan to buy back the trademark. A trademark that could have been registered for 300 yuan actually cost 350,000 yuan.
In the ruthless market competition, trademark competition is equally ruthless. Without trademark awareness, it is impossible to become a strong player in the market competition. The backward awareness of trademark registration is one of the main reasons for the large number of trademark registrations. one. Many enterprises in our country lack the awareness of trademark self-protection, do not realize that trademarks are the intangible wealth of enterprises, and lack the relevant knowledge of trademark registration, causing them heavy losses.
According to international practice, trademark registration is divided into the first-to-register principle and the first-to-use principle. Our country mainly adopts the first-to-register principle (only when applying on the same day, the first-to-use principle is adopted). Under this principle of "register household registration first and then have children", even if the founder of a certain trademark has created a fait accompli in society that is the first to use a certain trademark, as long as it is not registered, anyone has the right to register the same trademark. . If an enterprise wants to obtain the exclusive right to use a trademark, it must apply for registration of its trademark in a timely manner to avoid the misfortune of being preemptively registered. Since the protection of registered trademarks is territorial, if an enterprise wants to allow its products to participate in international competition, in addition to registering trademarks in my country, it must promptly register trademarks in trading countries and ensure trademark protection. Especially when applying for trademark registration in countries that adopt the first-to-register principle, you must make a prompt decision, sooner rather than later.
The above is the Shanghai company trademark registration process provided by the editor. I hope you will like it! Company registration