if the application procedures are complete and the application documents are filled out in accordance with the regulations, the trademark office will issue a notice of acceptance.
if the application procedures are incomplete or the application documents are not filled in as required, a notice of rejection will be issued and returned, and the application date will not be retained.
if the application procedures are basically complete or the application documents basically meet the requirements, but need to be corrected, the Trademark Office will issue a notice of correction of the application for trademark registration. If the applicant makes corrections within the time limit and returns them to the Trademark Office, the date of application shall be kept; If no correction is made or the correction is made within the time limit, the Trademark Office will issue a notice of rejection and return it, and the application date will not be retained.
trademark registration process ii. substantive examination
a trademark application enters substantive examination after passing formal examination. After substantive examination, the Trademark Office shall preliminarily examine and approve any trademark application that meets the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law and make an announcement.
if the application is rejected, a notice of rejection shall be issued to the applicant.
if the trademark office thinks that the contents of the application for trademark registration can be amended, it will issue a review opinion. If the applicant gives a reply within the time limit, the Trademark Office will continue the examination.
the trademark that has been preliminarily approved after examination shall be announced by the China Trademark Office in the Trademark Announcement.
within three months from the date of announcement, anyone can raise an objection to the trademark preliminarily approved by China Trademark Office.
if there is no objection or the objection is not established after ruling, the Chinese Trademark Office will approve the registration, issue a trademark registration certificate and make an announcement in the Trademark Announcement; If the objection is established by ruling, the registration shall not be approved.
what are the conditions for registering a trademark in Shenzhen?
(I) the distinctiveness of a trademark
The distinctiveness of a trademark lies in whether the trademark is new or not and whether it has its own personality. Individualized and newly-created trademarks are undoubtedly distinctive. Trademarks should have distinctive features, so as to facilitate the distinction. We should make a comprehensive investigation from the aspects of the characters, figures and other components of the trademarks themselves. Too simple graphics, lines, or too complicated patterns, ordinary numbers, common daily life terms or advertising language, common names of commodities, packaging, decoration, containers, etc. of commodities are generally considered to have no obvious characteristics. For example, an application for registration on cosmetics and other commodities with an arc as a symbol is not approved for lack of distinctiveness and is not easy to be recognized by consumers; Another example, with pine and cypress, flowers, sun, crane, flowing water and rocks as the background pattern, with the name of "Songhe Yingchun" requested to be registered on a commodity, which was also not approved for registration. The reason is that "Songhe Yingchun" is an auspicious term established by the people, and it is often used in daily necessities. As a decorative pattern, it is also often used in daily necessities.
trademarks are required to have distinctive features, with the purpose of enabling consumers to identify the source of goods through trademarks. Some trademarks, even though their constituent elements lack distinctive features, can also be registered because of their long-term use, and should be protected. For example, some simple figures such as triangles and semicircles should be associated with a specific commodity and used repeatedly to make them have the identification function, which should also be protected. For another example, the world-renowned "NIKE" trademark used in sportswear and sports shoes, with a stroke of a pen, is hardly recognizable in terms of its constituent elements, but this simple stroke has the strongest recognition function. Therefore, the distinctive features of a trademark should be judged and identified from the perspective of whether the trademark has actually been used or not and whether it has formed a specific connection with a certain commodity.
(II) Trademarks shall not be confused with other people's trademarks
Confusion means that a trademark is the same as or similar to another person's trademark. Generally speaking, the original trademarks mentioned above will not be confused with other people's trademarks, while suggestive trademarks, descriptive trademarks, especially borrowed trademarks will often be confused with other people's trademarks. If the trademark applied for registration is confused with other people's registered trademarks, it will not be allowed to register, but it will constitute infringement to use the same or similar trademarks on the same or similar goods.
Trademark identity means that the characters and graphics of trademarks used in the same commodity or similar commodities are exactly the same or the pronunciation of trademark names is exactly the same. It is difficult for consumers with the same trademark to distinguish the goods or services of different operators.
Trademark approximation means that the words, figures or names of trademarks used in the same commodity or similar commodities are basically the same pronunciation. Although there are differences, the differences are not obvious enough to make consumers mistake for buying by mistake. For example, someone designated the application for "surname" to be used on the 3th category of ice cream and popsicle, which is similar to the "Wahaha" trademark registered by Hangzhou Wahaha Group and designated for use on the 3th category of ice products. Although the two trademarks of "surname" and "wahaha" have different pronunciations, their glyphs are very similar. "What's the surname" only slightly changes every word of "Wahaha", deliberately bringing it closer to "Wahaha" and taking advantage of consumers' trust in Wahaha trademarks, making consumers misunderstand and lead to mistaken purchases. Trademark approximation is mainly manifested in three situations: shape (appearance), sound (pronunciation) and meaning (meaning). By comparing two trademarks, if their shape, sound and meaning are similar, it is an approximate trademark that easily confuses consumers.