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The legal significance of trademark distinctiveness in intellectual property law
"The meaning of a trademark is generally relative to the specified goods and services. This truth is self-evident. " To judge whether a logo is significant, we should not do it in the abstract, but should consider the goods or services it intends to attach. The concept or meaning of a sign cannot be directly related to the marked object, that is, goods or services, or has only a small or indirect connection. At the same time, the main body to judge whether a trademark is remarkable is not the examiner or judge of the Trademark Office, but the ordinary consumers in the relevant market. It is of great significance when ordinary consumers identify a logo as a trademark in their daily shopping. Ordinary consumers usually look at the logo as a whole, rather than looking at the details of the logo. He or she has reasonable relevant knowledge and reasonable degree of care, and the degree of care will change with the type of goods or services. As the product of the development of commodity economy, the trademark system depends entirely on the specific market, and the background of trademark use determines everything.

There is a degree of distinctiveness, and any mark that meets the minimum requirements of distinctiveness, that is, it has inherent distinctiveness, can be registered as a trademark. In fact, the prominence of trademarks often far exceeds this standard. Therefore, generally speaking, as long as a sign has no obvious defects, its meaning can be inferred. In practice, "reduction to absurdity is generally used to judge the distinctiveness of trademarks, that is, some marks that cannot be used as trademarks or registered as trademarks are excluded." From the legislative point of view, most of the provisions on distinctiveness in trademark laws of various countries belong to prohibitive clauses, that is, those unqualified marks are directly excluded from trademark protection. As far as academic research is concerned, "it is not easy to clearly define the composition of a distinctive trademark from the front, but to analyze it from the back, which will be more helpful to determine whether a trademark has distinctive elements." Meaning is dynamic. An inconspicuous mark may be remarkable because of long-term use. On the contrary, a distinctive sign will lose its meaning because of improper use. This involves the issue of obtaining salience.