This is not the first time that Apple has sued others for infringing on its trademarks.

No, Apple recently sued "Pear" again!

Recently, Apple took legal action against an app for Prepear on the grounds that the pear icon design used by the Prepear app was too similar to Apple's icon design. Although Prepear is engaged in the business of helping users plan meals, manage recipes, and deliver food, it has nothing to do with Apple.

It is evident that Apple attaches great importance to trademarks. In order to protect their own trademarks, many companies have their own methods, but there are also many companies that do not pay attention to the existence of trademarks and wait until it is too late to end the situation before turning back to deal with trademark issues. In the end, they end up losing more than they gain!

For example, the well-known "MUJI".

Starting from November 17, 1999, the "Liangpin Plan" applied to the Trademark Office to register the "MUJI" trademark, designated for use on goods or services in categories 16, 20, 21, 35, and 41 , but did not apply to register the "MUJI" trademark on category 24 (textile, bedding, towel-related) goods.

Half a year later, a Chinese company registered the "MUJI" trademark in Category 24.

Japan’s Muji wanted to regain the Class 24 trademark through a lawsuit, but was sued by a Chinese company, claiming that it infringed on the company’s “Muji” used in textiles. Trademark Rights. In this battle, MUJI lost the case.

Even worse than Muji is the famous sports shoe brand New Balance.

In the 1990s, the American fashion brand New Banlance entered China and took the Chinese name "New Balance". New Banlance allocated a lot of money After the budget promotion and publicity gradually became popular, its Chinese agent discovered that it had no registered trademark protection in China! So the Chinese agent registered the "New Balance" trademark on his own and successfully registered it. After that, the Chinese agent secretly produced a large number of counterfeit products, causing serious damage to the New Balance brand and eventually leading to its withdrawal from the Chinese market.

There is a pitfall when it comes to trademarks: operate first, then register.

New Balance stepped on this trap, which ultimately led to the outcome of being "forced to withdraw from the Chinese market." Although New Balance later made a belated comeback, due to the long delays in appeals in various trademark cases, the trademark dispute has obviously restricted New Balance's expansion and development in China.

The well-known computer brand Lenovo has also stepped into this trap.

Lenovo’s original English name was “Legend”, which was used in China for 19 years.

But around 2001, when Lenovo was becoming famous and wanted to start developing globally, it was discovered that “Legend” had been registered abroad. I found it too troublesome to buy it back, so I had no choice but to change its name to "Lenovo" in 2003. The brand equity, brand awareness, recognition and brand image accumulated previously were once damaged.

In addition to Lenovo, a well-known example is Hisense.

In 1993, Hisense registered "HiSense" in China. But Siemens registered "HiSense" in Germany in 1999. After years of quarreling, Hispanic finally paid 500,000 euros to redeem the German "HiSense" trademark.

In our country, many entrepreneurs do not pay enough attention to trademarks. They all want to operate first and then register. They think that as long as they make their own products and provide high-quality services, Trademark registration is just a formality, and it doesn’t matter whether you register it or not. It is precisely because operators have such a laissez-faire attitude toward trademark registration that once a trademark has a certain influence and reputation and is preemptively registered, it is too late.

Brand is the most important asset of a company, and trademark is the most basic carrier of brand. A trademark is a success or failure. A trademark is intellectual property, an intangible Assets, and the protection of trademarks cannot be overemphasized.

So there is a Chinese-style "defensive registration", which means "I have taken advantage of all the pitfalls, so I am not afraid of others coming to mess with me."

A famous case is that Lao Ganma registered 192 trademarks, including Lao Ganba, Lao Ganba, Lao Ganniang, Lao Aunt, Godson, Godson and so on. The aunt and eight aunts took them all in and formed a family of their own.

This approach is very common in the industry, and there is a very famous example: Alibaba.

Not only dad, as early as 2007, Alibaba had already registered the whole family: Sister Ali, Sister Ali, Grandma Ali, Grandpa Ali, Brother Ali, Brother Ali, Uncle Ali, Aunt Ali ...Catch the entire Ali family in one fell swoop and register them all, leaving no opportunity for others to take advantage of.

In the early years, because there were few brands and few entrepreneurial opportunities, many people did not realize the importance of trademarks. In recent years, with the advent of the era of national entrepreneurship, the development of e-commerce platforms, and the explosion of the short video industry, everyone has begun to create brands and operate online and offline stores. When the momentum is strong, they suddenly find that trademarks are not enough. !

Many companies start to register trademarks after a certain product or service has been on the market for months or even years, and then find that the trademark has been registered! After investing a huge amount of money in the market, I found that the trademark could no longer be used, so I had to start over! The essence of enterprises ignoring trademarks is that they do not understand the importance of trademark registration protection.

In other words, only when you are sick can you know the importance of health, and only when you are strangled can you know the value of a trademark!

Anyone who intends to open a company in any industry needs to be strongly aware of the importance of trademark registration and protection! Registering a trademark cannot wait until your company develops and grows. When your brand reaches a certain scale and popularity, you will have to pay a huge price if you go back to deal with trademark issues.

At worst, the other party may ask you to pay a huge sum of money to purchase the trademark, or at worst, it may directly file a lawsuit against you, causing your products to be removed from the shelves, unable to operate, and forced to change your name.

Therefore, everyone must remember that trademark registration should be done sooner rather than later! Be one step ahead of others, register your trademark, protect your own rights and interests, and save yourself a lot of unnecessary trouble in the future!

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