What is a trademark right? As the name suggests, trademark right refers to the rights enjoyed by a trademark. As a type of intellectual property, trademark rights have the general characteristics of intellectual property rights and also have their own characteristics. Trademark right is an intangible asset with economic value and can be transferred according to law.

What is trademark right?

Trademark right is the abbreviation of trademark exclusive right, which refers to the exclusive right that the trademark user enjoys in accordance with the law on the trademark used. It is the right of a trademark registrant to control its registered trademark in accordance with the law and prohibit others from infringing upon it, including the trademark registrant’s exclusive right to use its registered trademark, the right to income, the right to dispose of, the right to renew, and the right to prohibit others from infringing.

Trademark right is an intangible asset with economic value and can be used to pay off debts, that is, transferred according to law. According to the provisions of my country's Trademark Law, trademarks can be transferred. When transferring a registered trademark, the transferor and the transferee should sign a transfer agreement and file an application with the Trademark Office at the same time.

When transferring trademark rights, a trademark evaluation agency should be entrusted to conduct a trademark evaluation in accordance with the requirements of the "Several Provisions on Enterprise Trademark Management", and debt compensation matters should be handled according to the evaluated value, and an application must be made to the Trademark Office in a timely manner. Trademark transfer procedures.

Characteristics of trademark rights

Exclusivity

Also known as exclusivity or monopoly, it means that the trademark registrant has the exclusive right to use its registered trademark. The basic purpose of granting the owner of a registered trademark the exclusive right to use is to establish a fixed connection between a specific trademark and specific goods through registration, thereby ensuring that consumers can avoid confusion and receive accurate information about the source of the goods. In other words, any unauthorized use in commerce will constitute an infringement of trademark exclusive rights. This exclusive right manifests itself in three aspects:

(1) The trademark registrant has the right to use its registered trademark on the goods or product packaging approved for use in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, or No one else may interfere with services and service facilities;

(2) The trademark registrant has the right to prohibit any other person from using the same or similar trademark on the same or similar goods without its permission. Trademark;

(3) A trademark registrant has the right to license others to use his or her registered trademark, and may also transfer his or her registered trademark to others. Such licensing or transfer must comply with legal provisions and fulfill certain legal requirements. formalities.

Timeliness

Refers to the validity period of the exclusive right of a trademark. Within the validity period, the exclusive right to use a trademark is protected by law. If renewal procedures are not carried out beyond the validity period, it will no longer be protected by law. The validity period of the exclusive right to use a trademark stipulated in my country's Trademark Law is ten years. Article 40 of the Trademark Law stipulates that if a registered trademark has expired and needs to be continued to be used, the trademark registrant shall go through the renewal procedures in accordance with the regulations within twelve months before the expiration; if it fails to do so during this period, it may be Six months grace period. Each renewal of registration is valid for ten years, starting from the day after the expiration of the previous term of validity of the trademark. If renewal procedures are not completed upon expiration, the registered trademark will be cancelled.

Regionality

Refers to the fact that the protection of trademark exclusive rights is limited by geographical scope. The exclusive right to use a registered trademark only enjoys legal protection in the country where the trademark is registered, and non-registered countries have no obligation to protect it. If a trademark registered in my country wants to obtain exclusive trademark rights and receive legal protection in other countries, it must be registered in these countries respectively, or apply for territorial extension in the member states of the agreement through international intellectual property treaties such as the Madrid Agreement.

Property

The exclusive right to trademark is an intangible property right. The entire exclusive right of a trademark is an intellectual achievement, which embodies the efforts and labor of the right holder. Intellectual achievements are different from tangible material wealth. Although they need to be expressed through a certain carrier, the carrier itself does not have much economic value. What can only embody huge economic value is the intellectual achievements contained in the carrier. For example, the "Coca-Cola" trademark, "Quanjude" trademark, etc., the carriers of their trademarks: Coke, roast duck, etc. are not expensive things, but the trademarks themselves have extremely high economic value. Through trademark value assessment, these trademarks can be regarded as intangible assets and become part of the enterprise's capital contribution.

Category

Category refers to the category and product (service) name approved by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in accordance with the "Trademark Registration Application" submitted by the trademark registration applicant. for review and approval.

The scope of protection of registered trademarks is limited to the approved categories and projects. Based on the "International Classification of Goods and Services for Trademark Registration" provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the "Classification Table of Similar Goods and Services" formulated by the State Trademark Office classifies goods and services. The total number is divided into 45 categories. In the same or similar categories and goods (services), only one trademark right holder is allowed to own the same or similar trademark. In different and similar categories, different right holders are allowed to own the same trademark. or similar trademarks. Intellectual Property Trademark Rights