How does a company in Shaoxing register a trademark? What are the procedures for trademark registration now? The editor has brought you relevant knowledge about trademark registration, which may include There is what you need. Shaoxing registered trademark detailed process
Trademark registration process 1. Formal review
After formal review, the application procedures are complete and the application documents are filled in as required, the Trademark Office will issue an acceptance notice.
If the application procedures are incomplete or the application documents are not filled in as required, a notice of rejection will be issued and returned, and the application date will not be retained.
If the application procedures are basically complete or the application documents basically comply with the regulations, but if supplements and corrections are needed, the Trademark Office will issue a notice of supplements and corrections to the trademark registration application. If the applicant makes corrections within the time limit and returns it to the Trademark Office, the application date will be retained; if the applicant fails to make corrections or makes corrections beyond the time limit, the Trademark Office will issue a notice of rejection and return it, and the application date will not be retained.
Trademark registration process 2. Substantive examination
After passing the formal examination, the trademark application enters the substantive examination. After substantive examination, any trademark application that complies with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law will be initially reviewed and approved by the Trademark Office and announced.
If the application is rejected, a rejection notice will be issued to the applicant.
If the Trademark Office believes that the contents of the trademark registration application can be revised, it will issue an examination opinion. If the applicant responds within the time limit, the Trademark Office will continue the examination.
For trademarks that have been preliminarily approved after review, the China Trademark Office will announce them in the "Trademark Announcement".
Within three months from the date of announcement, anyone can object to a trademark initially approved by the China Trademark Office.
If there is no objection or the objection is ruled not to be established, the China Trademark Office will approve the registration, issue a trademark registration certificate, and announce it in the "Trademark Announcement"; if the objection is ruled to be true, the registration will not be approved.
Request for review
If the applicant is dissatisfied with the Trademark Office’s rejection of the trademark registration application during the trademark registration process, he or she may request a review from the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board will make a final decision on whether to grant registration or not, and notify the applicant in writing. If the party concerned is dissatisfied with the Trademark Office's objection ruling, he or she may request a review from the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board will make a final decision and notify the parties in writing. Information required for Shaoxing registered trademark
1. If applying for registration under a company name, a copy of the business license must be provided, and the official seal must be stamped on the copy of the business license;
2. If you apply for registration in your own name, you need to provide a copy of your personal ID card and a copy of the business license of the individual industrial and commercial household. The copy of the business license of the individual industrial and commercial household must be stamped with the official seal;
3. Provide trademark text or drawings. If the color needs to be protected, color drawings are also required;
4. Provide the goods/services to be registered, which can be based on the goods operated by the applicant or the services provided by the applicant, referring to the "Trademark Registration Use" Fill in the ninth edition of the "International Classification of Goods and Services" (Nice Classification) and the "Classification Table of Similar Goods and Services" modified by the Trademark Office based on the above-mentioned international classification table;
5. Provide official seal or signature "Trademark Agency Power of Attorney", which can be obtained from this website; especially note that the address on the "Trademark Agency Power of Attorney" should be exactly the same as the registered address on the business license. What are the reasons for invalidation of trademark registration under the Shaoxing Trademark Law?
According to Article 41 of my country’s Trademark Law, the reasons for invalidity include:
(1) Lack of absolute requirements for trademark registration
According to the provisions of Article 41, Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law, for registered trademarks that lack absolute conditions for registration, the Trademark Office can proactively declare invalid ex officio, and anyone can request the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to rule on the declaration. This registered trademark is invalid. This provision is intended to protect public interests, public order and good customs, and should be retained. We can draw lessons from the provisions of Article 25 (1) of the 1993 "Details for the Implementation of the Trademark Law", which clearly defines "deceptive means" as "fabrication, concealing the truth or forging application documents and related documents for registration". For example, a natural person forges business qualification documents to apply for a registered trademark.
(2) Infringement of prior trademark rights and other prior rights
1. Infringement of other people’s previously applied for registered trademark rights.
That is, as stipulated in Article 43, Paragraph 3 of the Trademark Law and Article 29 of the Implementing Regulations of the Trademark Law, a registered trademark and a trademark previously applied for registration by others constitute identical or similar trademarks used on the same or similar goods. In Article 29 of the "Regulations", the legislative language of "trademark registrants who have previously applied for registration" and "registered trademarks" excludes "trademarks that have been applied for earlier but are still in the rejection review or opposition process and have not been registered" from being able to file a dispute. It is outside the scope and is not conducive to the protection of previously applied trademark rights. ?This revision of the Trademark Law should give owners of previously applied trademarks the procedural right to raise disputes. For cases involving disputes based on previously applied trademark rights, substantive hearings should be conducted after the final results of rejection or opposition cases are reached. Otherwise, there will be a situation where the trademark applied for earlier will be rejected or the preliminary approval will be revoked, and the trademark applied for later and registered will be declared invalid, which is not conducive to the protection of later applicants.
2. Infringement of other people’s prior rights other than trademark rights. That is to say, as stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 31 of the Trademark Law, an application for registration of a trademark shall not infringe upon the prior rights enjoyed by others. The identification of prior rights (such as copyright) and the determination of infringement of prior rights are beyond the professional scope of trademark administrative adjudication agencies. Moreover, in the case of judicial review of administrative decisions, the same conflict of rights may require "three trials (administrative first trial, two judicial trials) or four trials (if it goes through the objection procedure)" before it can be finalized, resulting in a shortage of administrative and judicial resources. waste. Amending the Trademark Law may consider giving priority to judicial procedures for applications for registered trademarks that conflict with other prior rights. The following provisions may be made: If an application for a registered trademark infringes upon the prior rights of others and is determined by a court's effective judgment, the Trademark Office shall reject the application or declare Registration is invalid. The Trademark Office's rejection and declaration of invalidity based on this is to execute the effective judgment without going through the invalidation declaration procedure, and the applicant or registrant is not allowed to file a lawsuit.
(3) Violation of honest industrial and commercial practices
Any person who applies for a registered trademark violates honest industrial and commercial practices and infringes upon the interests of others under competition law, which constitutes grounds for invalidation of trademark rights. According to the second paragraph of Article 41 of my country’s Trademark Law, situations in which a registered trademark violates the principle of good faith include:
1. Infringement of the rights and interests of a well-known trademark. That is, there are two situations stipulated in Article 13 of the Trademark Law: the trademark applied for registration for the same or similar goods is a copy, imitation or translation of someone else’s well-known trademark that has not been registered in China, which is likely to cause confusion; the trademark is not identical or similar The trademark applied for registration for a product is a copy, imitation or translation of someone else's well-known trademark that has been registered in China, misleading the public and causing possible damage to the interests of the registrant of the well-known trademark. Copying, imitating or translating this article is just a means and can easily lead to confusion and mislead the public. It is the result that the interests of the well-known trademark registrant may be harmed. As long as such a result occurs, it should be stopped, regardless of the means. This result is not due to the means, but to the fact that the trademark applied for registration is identical or similar to the well-known trademark, and it may be the same or similar even if the above-mentioned means are not adopted. Moreover, the means of "copying, imitating, and translating" themselves are enough to show that the registration is subjectively malicious. However, Paragraph 2 of Article 41 stipulates that the owner of a well-known trademark is not subject to a five-year time limit for registration in bad faith. When the owner of a well-known trademark raises a dispute based on this provision, he must not only prove that the registrant of the disputed trademark has adopted Article 13 The prescribed means also require proof of the registrant's subjective malice, which is obviously unreasonable. Therefore, this article recommends deleting the description of the method and modifying it to state that the trademark applied for registration is the same as or similar to a well-known trademark that has not been (already) registered in China by others.
2. Agents or representatives rush to register trademarks. That is, Article 15 of the Trademark Law stipulates that “without authorization, an agent or representative registers the trademark of the principal or represented person in his or her own name”. There are three obvious differences between the provisions of our country's laws and those of the Paris Convention: First, the terms are different. The Paris Convention uses the concept of "trademark owner", but our country's law corresponds to "principal or represented person". This term has caused undue ambiguity in practice. ?Second, the protection methods are different. Our country's law only stipulates that if the principal or represented person raises an objection, registration shall not be granted and use shall be prohibited. The Paris Convention not only gives the principal or represented person the right to object and cancel registration, but also can If permitted by the laws of the country, request the transfer of the registration to yourself. Third, there are no exclusions.
The "Paris Convention" stipulates that except where the agent or representative can prove that his or her behavior is legitimate, there is no similar provision in our country's laws. Therefore, it can be improved by referring to the provisions of the Paris Public Security Bureau.
3. Misleading the public because it contains geographical indications. That is, as stipulated in Article 16, Paragraph 1 of the Trademark Law, "the trademark contains a geographical indication of a product, but the product does not originate from the area indicated by the mark, misleading the public." This provision plays an important role in protecting geographical indications that have not been registered as collective trademarks or certification marks and should be retained. For geographical indications that have been registered as collective trademarks or certification marks, the provisions of Article 28 of the Trademark Law can be directly applied for protection.
4. Preemptive registration of trademarks. That is, what is stipulated in the second paragraph of Article 31 of the Trademark Law: Preemptively registering a trademark that is already used by others and has a certain influence by others through unfair means. The so-called certain influence means that it is known to the relevant public within a specific geographical scope. Trademarks with certain influence include both trademarks that have never been registered and trademarks that have not been renewed but still have certain influence. Compared with Articles 13 and 15 of the Trademark Law, the owner of such a trademark (the prior user) can only prohibit others from applying for registration, but does not have the right to prohibit others from using it. Moreover, before the trademark is declared invalid, rush injection also has the right to prohibit the real trademark owner from using it, which is obviously extremely detrimental to the protection of the trademark owner. In order to fully protect the interests of the trademark owner, it should be allowed to continue to use it (without being disturbed by the alleged infringement), prohibit the use of the squatter (stop the unfair competition of the squatter) and request transfer registration (the trademark right belongs to the real trademark owner). rights holder).
5. Obtain registration by other improper means. According to the interpretation of the "Trademark Adjudication Standards", "other unfair registration behaviors" in Article 41, paragraph 1, of the "Trademark Law" refer to behaviors that are registered in bad faith for the purpose of unfair competition and seeking illegal benefits. However, the existing differences in the practice community regarding this interpretation should be revised and improved to eliminate ambiguities.
Processing trademark registration