With the deepening of China's opening to the outside world and the rapid popularization of English knowledge, many enterprises and individuals choose to register English trademarks. When examining whether an English trademark can be registered, the meaning of English is an important examination factor, because it involves various situations of trademark registrability. For example, is the trademark significant on the goods designated for use? Is the trademark similar to a Chinese trademark previously registered by others on the same or similar goods? Does the meaning of the trademark violate the prohibition regulations, and how to correctly grasp the meaning of the English trademark? It can be said that the general understanding of the trademark by the relevant public when combining goods or services is the meaning of English trademark. But this answer is more general and difficult to operate in practice.
in order to facilitate the discussion and exclude the interference of other factors, the trademark discussed below is plain English word mark in ordinary print.
is one or two words together a fictitious trademark?
does an enterprise in Taiwan Province apply for registration on computers and other commodities? eDisk? The trademark was rejected by the Trademark Office for lack of distinctiveness. The enterprise applied to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board for reexamination, which rejected it for the same reason. Since then, the company has filed a political lawsuit with the court, saying that? eDisk? Originated by the plaintiff, it can't be found in any dictionary, and it belongs to a fictitious trademark, which is remarkable as a trademark. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board thinks that? eDisk? Medium? D? For capital letters, ordinary consumers can easily divide the trademark into? e? And? Disk? Two-part recognition, in which? e? Often used to express? Electronic? The meaning of? Disk? What does it mean? Disk? , is a common commodity name in the computer industry. eDisk? The whole does not have the distinctiveness that a trademark should have. The first-instance judgment of the court upheld the decision of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.
a fabricated trademark refers to a trademark fabricated by the applicant and having no meaning. Fictitious trademarks can generally be registered because they have no meaning and strong distinctiveness. However, because the fictitious trademark itself has nothing to do with the goods, it is difficult for consumers to remember the trademark and establish popularity in a short time, although consumers will not be confused about the origin of the goods. Therefore, many enterprises intentionally or unintentionally play word games and combine two descriptive words to register, hoping to avoid the law and obtain registration, and save the cost of publicity and promotion of trademarks.
However, whether a trademark has meaning or not is not a fictitious trademark, and it should not be based on whether the whole text of the trademark is included in the dictionary. A trademark formed by combining two words with meaning is not a fictitious trademark. If it is descriptive to the goods designated for use as a whole and difficult to mark the source of the goods, it still cannot be registered. This is? eDisk? The enlightenment of the case.
some people will ask,? eDisk? In the trademark? D? For capital letters, it can be seen that the applicant has the intention to guide consumers to understand the trademark in two parts, and of course it cannot be registered; But if two words are not distinguished by uppercase and lowercase letters, hyphens, spaces or spaces, can they be registered? Actually, where is the court? supershot? A clear answer has been given in the case. The court held that consumers can easily understand the meaning of the trademark as? Super jet? , used in injection molding machine goods directly describes the functional characteristics of the goods, thus maintaining the rejection decision made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board. It can be seen that as long as consumers can understand it easily and the whole is not significant, English word combination trademarks that can not mark the origin should not be registered.
second, is the meaning of English trademark subject to the description of the applicant?
an enterprise refuses to accept the rejection made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to register on wires, cables and other commodities? Space shuttle? In the case of the trademark decision, the enterprise claimed that the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board took? Space shuttle? Prior registration with others on similar goods? SPACESHUTTLE? It is incorrect to reject its trademark registration on the grounds of approximation; According to the trademark law about? Where the trademark is in a foreign language or contains a foreign language, the meaning shall be stated? The rules,? SPACESHUTTLE? Is there? Space shuttle? The meaning of the trademark shall be subject to the description in the application for registration of the trademark.
I don't agree with the plaintiff's statement. Although the Trademark Law stipulates that the applicant should explain the meaning of a foreign trademark, it does not mean that the Trademark Office or the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board must take the applicant's explanation as the standard. Otherwise, the applicant can say that what is meaningful is meaningless, what is descriptive is not descriptive, or explain it with the uncommon meaning of the word to avoid the registration risk. If so, what was mentioned earlier? eDisk? And? supershot? You can also get registration openly through the applicant's explanation, which will inevitably lead to the destruction of the market competition order in the long run. Therefore, the above explanation of the plaintiff in this case is obviously contrary to the legislative purpose of this paragraph. The applicant's explanation of the meaning of the foreign trademark in the application can only be used as a reference for the examiner to review. In the end, the examiner still needs to draw a conclusion on the basis of synthesizing the existing evidence, according to his daily experience and review practice, and starting from the general cognition of consumers.
third, can only the first meaning in the dictionary be used as the meaning of an English trademark?
in another trademark confirmation administrative lawsuit, the plaintiff thinks? Blinkscan? Among them? blink? What is the first meaning of the word in the dictionary? Blink? Therefore, the use of this trademark on goods such as scanners cannot be understood as describing the characteristics of light beam flashing during the operation of scanners, and then it is judged that this trademark is not significant. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board thinks that? blink? What is the word? Flash? Although this meaning is not listed as the first meaning in the dictionary, it does not mean that this meaning is uncommon. In fact, consumers are more likely to understand the word when combining goods. Flash? Therefore, the word will not be recognized as a sign of origin. The first-instance judgment of the court adopted the views of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.
It is very common that one word has multiple meanings in English. In general dictionaries, the original meaning of the word is taken as the first meaning, and the extended meaning and figurative meaning are put behind. But this does not mean that the extended meaning or figurative meaning is uncommon. In fact, the extended meaning or figurative meaning of many words is more widely used than the original meaning. At the same time, the meaning of an English trademark should not be determined solely by the interpretation of the trademark applicant, but should be judged from the possible cognition of ordinary consumers in combination with the goods.
4. What is the difference between polysemy and polysemy?
yes? Space shuttle? In the case, the plaintiff claimed that? SPACESHUTTLE? There are many meanings, which can be? Space shuttle? 、? Space shuttle? Or? Space shuttle? . The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board thinks that? Space shuttle? And? Space shuttle? It's the same thing, right? SPACESHUTTLE? Two ways of translation, not polysemy.
So what's the difference between polysemy and polysemy? Polysemy means that English itself has many meanings, such as original meaning, extended meaning and figurative meaning, noun meaning, verb meaning and adjective meaning. Multi-translation of one word means that there are many ways to translate an English word, but all the ways have the same meaning and are the same thing. Such as? laser? Can be translated into? Laser? , can also be translated into? Laser? .
what is the significance of distinguishing the above differences in trademark examination? A polysemous English trademark and a previously registered Chinese trademark are less likely to be recognized as similar trademarks unless there is a great correspondence in meaning, so the English trademark is more likely to be registered. For example, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board once determined that an enterprise applied for it? sail? Where the trademark is registered with others in advance? Sailing Trademarks are not similar, though? Sailing Yes? sail? One of the meanings of. Of course, if there is a big correspondence between the two, it is another matter. As in 23? BOSS? In the case, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board held that "BOSS? Registered with others first? Boss? Trademark composition is similar, the reason is that the relevant public in China? BOSS? Namely? Boss? The awareness is high. The court adopted this statement. Relatively speaking, Chinese trademark words are a translation method of English trademark words, and if two trademarks are used on the same or similar goods, it is more likely to cause confusion and misunderstanding among the relevant public than the case of polysemy. Of course, the premise is that this translation method is accepted by a considerable part of the relevant public. Are you online? Space shuttle? In the case? Space shuttle? As? SPACESHUTTLE? A kind of translation method of ""has been widely accepted in mainland China. For example, enter it on GOOGLE? Space shuttle? Tens of thousands of related information can be obtained by using the word, and the word has been included in common dictionaries.
What has been discussed above is the meaning of plain English trademarks in ordinary print and its significance in trademark examination. However, English trademarks are not limited to pure English trademarks in ordinary print, but may also be word mark after artistic treatment, or a combination of words and graphics. This paper also does not discuss the situation that trademarks are remarkable after use. Under the action of the above-mentioned different factors, different results may appear. In a word, the trademark case is very strong, which requires the examiner to draw a conclusion on the basis of following the general review principle and combining the specific circumstances of the case.