How entrepreneurs can avoid trademark disputes and protect trademarks

1. Trademark design

In the stages of naming, trademark design and trademark registration, entrepreneurs probably focus on They all focus on "whether they can obtain trademark authorization", but ignore the copyright issue of trademark design. Therefore, when a start-up company designs a trademark, it is best to reach a written contract with the designer that "the copyright belongs to the client". If there is no With written authorization, even trademarks designed by our employees are not owned by the company.

2. Use fonts carefully when naming trademarks

For the sake of beauty and personalization, many people choose some paid fonts when designing trademarks, but these fonts themselves also enjoy copyright, although Regarding this issue, the judiciary has not yet clarified how to divide the font copyright issue in trademarks, but some people have had trademark disputes and lost lawsuits due to font issues. Therefore, entrepreneurs should be careful in using these copyrighted fonts when naming trademarks.

3. All-category registration

Let’s imagine a situation like this: someone who sells underwear has registered “Apple”, and someone who sells toilets has registered “Master Kong”... What kind of situation will this be? Those who sell underwear may be able to gain more attention by leveraging the brand power of Apple's mobile phones, but what has Apple lost? Those who sell toilets will use the brand power of "Master Kong" to become a household name. In the future, there will still be people willing to eat "Master Kong" "Instant noodles?"

To avoid such trademark disputes, startups need to provide "full class protection" for their trademarks.

In addition to the above problems, we also recommend that entrepreneurs apply for combined trademarks separately, because trademarks applied for separately can be used together, but combined trademark applications are not protected by law.