It is very necessary for foreign companies to own overseas trademarks. Why do you say this? The first thing we need to know is that the trademark laws of each country are different, but no matter whether it is exported or what kind of product, it needs the support of a trademark. Domestic trademarks are needed at home, and foreign trademarks are needed abroad, so We say that for foreign companies, registering foreign trademarks is an indispensable task.
On November 15, 2016, the "125th Anniversary Conference on Trademarks, Brands and the Madrid International Trademark System" jointly sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce was officially held in Qingdao. The achievements of Qingdao enterprises in using the Madrid system for international trademark registration in recent years have attracted widespread attention due to their large number and rapid growth. They have been hailed by the World Intellectual Property Organization as the "Qingdao phenomenon" of Madrid trademark international registration.
Trademarks and brands are the “identity guarantee” for enterprises to go abroad and participate in international market competition. In recent years, Qingdao has actively guided export-oriented enterprises to strengthen the concept of "product export, registration first" and guided enterprises to register international trademarks.
The Madrid System is the most convenient and economical way to register international trademarks. Since the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the system, there have been 114 member states, covering the European Union, the African Intellectual Property Organization, and most developed and developing countries. It has now provided international protection for 1.25 million trademarks, and its total trade volume accounts for 11% of the total global trade. of 80 and above.
In 2011, the Qingdao Municipal Government and the World Intellectual Property Organization signed the "Minutes of Talks on Strengthening the Protection of International Registration of Madrid Trademarks and Promoting Cooperation in Local Economic Development" and formulated a three-year plan for the international registration of Madrid trademarks for Qingdao. , pioneering cooperation between domestic local governments and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Since then, the number of Qingdao Madrid trademark international registration applications has shown rapid growth.
According to statistics from the Qingdao Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce, in 2014, the number of applications for international registration of Madrid trademarks in Qingdao reached 719; in 2015, the number of applications was 811, accounting for 37.2% of the total number of applications nationwide. At the end of November 2015, Qingdao City The Leading Group for Promoting Madrid International Trademark Registration won the "China Trademark Gold Award-Madrid International Trademark Registration Special Award".
Implementing trademark strategies to promote international registration
The emergence of the "Qingdao phenomenon" of international trademark registrations benefits from the trademark strategy vigorously promoted by the Qingdao Municipal Government in recent years.
Qingdao issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of Trademark Strategy to Promote Economic Development" at the end of 2012, and has included trademark development work in the comprehensive assessment of the city's scientific development for many years, and included Madrid trademark registration in the performance evaluation of district and municipal governments. The assessment mobilized the city's enthusiasm for brand creation.
“At least one international trademark for key export enterprises” is the assistance goal set by Qingdao City. Qingdao selects key enterprises from among the city's more than 10,000 foreign trade enterprises with export performance to strengthen cultivation and guidance. In addition, Qingdao also seized the opportunity of the urban demonstration work of the small and micro enterprise entrepreneurship and innovation base to obtain 27 million yuan in mass entrepreneurship and innovation funds for small and micro enterprises. At the same time, it issued the "Implementation Rules for the Management of Funds for International Market Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" to provide services to enterprises with overseas registered trademarks. Each household is provided with a registration fee of no more than RMB 50, and a maximum subsidy of no more than RMB 15,000 for a single item, effectively reducing the cost of international registration of corporate trademarks.
At present, Qingdao has guided a number of enterprises such as Haier, Tsingtao Brewery, Sailun, and King King to register international trademarks through the Madrid system. In recent years, the export of Qingdao's own brand products has maintained a high growth trend, and the total export volume has maintained a stable growth of more than 10% every year.
Promoting enterprises to go global
Practice has proved that the Madrid System has become an important way for Qingdao enterprises to go abroad to participate in international competition and safeguard overseas trademark rights and interests.
As one of the first Chinese brands to go global, Tsingtao Beer was the first to realize the importance of overseas trademark and brand protection.
Wang Ruiyong, Vice President of Tsingtao Beer Co., Ltd., said that in the 1990s, Tsingtao Beer was registered through the Madrid System for the first time, and 45 countries and regions were designated among the 51 parties at that time, which helped Tsingtao Beer quickly increase its brand and visibility in the international market. . Today, Tsingtao Brewery has registered more than 400 trademarks in more than 140 countries and regions around the world through the Madrid System, basically covering Tsingtao Brewery's main overseas markets and potential markets. Currently, Tsingtao Beer has been exported to 92 countries and regions around the world. In 2015, despite the slowdown in the global beer market, Tsingtao Beer's international market sales bucked the trend and achieved growth: 53% in Asia-Pacific, 26% in Northern Europe, 18% in the UK, and 100% in South Korea. Wang Ruiyong said that the reason why Tsingtao Brewery chose the Madrid system for international trademark registration is that it has “wide coverage, simple procedures, cost savings, and convenient management.”
Qingdao Taikaiying Tire Co., Ltd. has more personal experience with the advantages of the Madrid system. When the company registered overseas trademarks in the early years, it adopted the method of applying one by one in a single country. Not only was the procedure complicated and expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of yuan, but it also took a long time and easily delayed market opportunities. When the company entered the Mexican market in 2012, it found that its brand Luxxan trademark had been registered by local customers, resulting in the company being unable to sell the goods. In the end, it invested a lot of energy and spent more than 50,000 US dollars to buy the trademark back from the customer. .
Later, under the guidance of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, Taikaiying Company learned about the Madrid system and found that there were many benefits to registering through it: first, you only need to pay the basic registration fee when you first apply, and you will be designated later. Country is enough. For example, if a trademark needs to be registered in the EU, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Japan at the same time, the registration fee if applied for one by one is about 60,000 to 80,000 yuan, while it only costs 20,000 yuan through the Madrid system. Secondly, the cumbersome procedures of using different languages, submitting different applications, and paying fees separately to different countries are eliminated, and the time required is greatly shortened. At present, Taikaiying has been registered overseas in 175 countries through the Madrid system, ensuring smooth exports for enterprises.
“Trademarks are very important to enterprises, especially when developing overseas markets. We must adhere to the concept of brand first.” said the relevant person in charge of Taikaiying Company, “If we blindly develop the market and ignore Without trademark registration, market development efforts may be meaningless.”