According to Article 30 of the current Trademark Law (Article 28 of the 2001 Trademark Law): "Any trademark applied for registration does not comply with the relevant provisions of the law or is in the same category as others." If the registered or preliminarily approved trademarks on goods or similar goods are identical or similar, the Trademark Office will reject the application and will not publish it. "In the current situation of rejection of trademark applications, they are basically rejected because the trademarks are identical or similar. Can similar trademarks be registered?

Can trademark registrations be similar? The answer is no. Therefore, "the trademark is the same or similar + the goods are the same or similar" becomes the key to whether the trademark can be successfully registered. However, how to determine whether a trademark is similar cannot only be based on whether the elements that constitute the trademark logo are similar. It must also be combined with the products designated by the trademark and the popularity of similar trademarks for a comprehensive analysis.

According to Article 9 of the "Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Trademark Dispute Cases", it is clearly stipulated that trademark similarity refers to the comparison of the trademark accused of infringement and the plaintiff's registered trademark. It needs to be made clear that the trademark accused of infringement refers to the identification mark used by the infringer on goods, packaging, containers, commercial transaction documents, advertising and other carriers to indicate the source of the goods; and the registered trademark that is plagiarized must be a trademark. The style approved by the Trademark Office and clearly shown on the original trademark registration certificate.

Of course, these are relatively abstract legal provisions, but there are more specific and detailed criteria that really affect the determination of trademark similarity:

1. The trademark can The degree of attracting public attention is the standard;

2. The trademark as a whole needs to be compared, and the main parts of the trademark need to be compared at the same time (the comparison needs to be done separately with two or more trademarks isolated).

3. The distinctiveness and popularity of the registered trademark need to be considered as appropriate.

4. The scope of products and services protected by the registered trademark.

In other words, the scope of screening for similar trademarks when registering a trademark includes not only the font, pronunciation, and meaning of the trademark text, or the composition, coloring, appearance, and arrangement of the combination of text and graphics, Appearance, the most direct aspects such as the shape and appearance of the three-dimensional mark, color or color combination similarity, will also be reviewed from the perspective of consumers' understanding (or misunderstanding) of the specific trademark when consuming goods or services.

However, this process involves the personal understanding and opinions of many examiners, which makes the process of trademark registration highly variable and makes it more difficult to successfully register a trademark.

Therefore, when applying for a registered trademark, you also need to pay attention to whether the proposed trademark is similar to a successfully registered trademark. Otherwise, the application process will be rejected due to similarity of trademarks, which is a waste of time and energy.

The above is the relevant content on whether trademark registration can be similar for your reference. I hope it can help you. If you have any questions about applying for a registered trademark, please feel free to discuss it with the Intellectual Property Office.