At present, according to the laws and regulations of China, it is tobacco products that must use registered trademarks. Article 19 of the newly revised Tobacco Monopoly Law stipulates: "Cigarettes, cigars and packaged cut tobacco must apply for trademark registration, and may not be produced or sold without approval and registration. It is forbidden to produce and sell tobacco products that counterfeit the registered trademarks of others. " Article 22 of the newly revised Regulations on the Implementation of the Tobacco Monopoly Law stipulates: "Cigarettes, cigars and packaged cut tobacco shall use registered trademarks."
Three risks of using unregistered trademarks
1, not protected by law.
Article 3 of the Trademark Law stipulates: "Trademarks approved and registered by the Trademark Office are registered trademarks, including commodity trademarks, service trademarks, collective trademarks and certification trademarks; Trademark registrants enjoy the exclusive right to use trademarks and are protected by law. "
Therefore, the biggest risk for enterprises to use unregistered trademarks is that trademarks cannot be protected by relevant laws. Enterprises do not enjoy the exclusive right to use a trademark, and other enterprises can also use the trademark.
For example, the "Dida" brand tractor produced by enterprise A is cheap and very popular with consumers. However, enterprise A did not register the trademark "Dida", and other manufacturers marked the word "Dida" on the tractors they sold, which harmed the interests of enterprise A. ..
2. It is easy to be squatted by others.
China's Trademark Law stipulates that the exclusive right to use a trademark can only be obtained through trademark registration, and the principle of applying first is adopted, that is, whoever applies for registration first will have the exclusive right to use a trademark.
If an enterprise uses an unregistered trademark, once the trademark is successfully registered by others, the enterprise may not be able to continue to use the trademark, and the manpower, material resources and financial resources previously spent on promoting the trademark will be wasted.
3. It is easy to infringe others' exclusive right to use trademarks.
The use of unregistered trademarks is likely to infringe on the exclusive right of others to use trademarks. If the unregistered trademark used by an enterprise is the same as or similar to the trademark previously registered by others, it may infringe on the exclusive right to use the trademark of the enterprise, which may lead to trademark disputes and even bring both parties to court. If it is finally determined that the enterprise has indeed infringed on the exclusive right to use trademarks of others, it can also compensate others for their economic losses.
4. Trademarks cannot become intangible assets of enterprises.
Intangible assets refer to identifiable non-monetary assets that have no physical form and are owned or controlled by enterprises. In the field of intellectual property, intangible assets include patent rights and trademark rights.
China's Trademark Law stipulates that only successfully registered trademarks can be protected by law, and only in this way can trademark rights be formed. Where an enterprise uses an unregistered trademark, the trademark is not protected by law, does not form a trademark right and does not become an intangible asset of the enterprise.
Do you understand now? The risk of using unregistered trademarks is not small, and it is absolutely impossible to escape these risks without registering trademarks.
Fourth, how to register a trademark safely and quickly.
1. Conduct trademark inquiry before applying for registered trademark.
Trademark approximate query refers to approximate search according to the graphic, text and other components of trademarks, and it can be found whether there are identical or similar previously registered trademarks or previously applied trademarks on the same or similar goods.
Through the approximate query of trademarks, the probability of trademark rejection can be reduced, thus shortening the registration time of trademarks.
2. It is best to register the combined trademark separately.
A combined trademark refers to a trademark composed of any two or more of the six elements of "words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and color combinations".
In our country, a combined trademark is a single examination of each constituent element, and it must be ensured that the characters, letters, graphics and other elements that constitute a combined trademark are not the same or similar to those registered or being registered by others before it can pass the examination.
If the combined trademark is not registered separately, once a certain element is similar, the whole trademark will be rejected, affecting the whole body. And registered separately, even if one of the trademarks is rejected, it will not affect the application of other parts.
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