As we all know, the process of applying for trademark registration is very complicated and tedious, and the process is long and annoying. Therefore, many enterprises have encountered waterloo in the matter of trademarks, some have problems in applying for registration, some have rejected trademarks that do not meet the requirements, some have changed registered trademarks without authorization, and so on. This series of problems will be faced by many businesses, so how to solve them? Next, Xiaobian will analyze the common mistakes of enterprise trademarks:

1. Errors in applying for registration

① Failing to pay attention to inquiry before applying for trademarks, and being rejected.

in order to avoid the rejection of an application for registered trademark because it conflicts with the same or similar trademark previously registered or applied by others, trademark inquiry is a necessary procedure for applying for registered trademark. When applying for trademark registration, some enterprises are too confident about the trademarks they choose or design, thinking that there can be no prior trademarks, and often do not pay attention to the inquiry before application or the inquiry is not meticulous, which leads to the conflict between the applied trademarks and the trademarks previously registered or applied by others and is rejected, which wastes the application fee.

② The name of the trademark was arbitrary, and the trademark applied for registration did not meet the legal requirements and was rejected.

the name and design of a trademark should not only be beautiful, but also comply with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, especially the prohibition clauses. Some enterprises do not pay attention to the legal provisions when naming trademarks, which is arbitrary. When choosing trademarks, they only consider looking good. As a result, they are rejected by the Trademark Office for violating the prohibitive provisions. In addition, some enterprises prefer descriptive and suggestive trademarks that lack distinctiveness. Even if they are approved for registration, it is difficult to be protected, which is not conducive to brand building in the long run.

③ The choice of goods designated for use is unreasonable, and the scope of trademark protection is too narrow.

trademark applications are handled according to the international classification of goods or services for trademark registration (commonly known as Nice classification). Each classification of goods or services (currently there are 45 categories) includes many groups, and each group includes several specific names of goods or services. Only by choosing the right goods or services reasonably according to certain laws can the goods or services involved in trademarks be protected to the maximum extent. When many enterprises apply for registered trademarks, they often only choose the goods they are actually producing, without considering the goods that should be protected. Other enterprises only choose one or two commodities that are not common and lack broad meaning in a certain commodity classification when registering in defensive trade mark, which leads to extremely limited use of trademarks and makes it easy for others to exploit loopholes to register the same or similar trademarks on similar commodities.

④ the application for the same or similar trademark in the name of different subjects was rejected.

according to laws and regulations, different subjects cannot apply for registration of the same or similar trademarks on the same or similar goods or services. Some enterprises are actually a set of teams and several brands. Although these different units are a set of teams in law, they have different subjects. When an enterprise applies for the registration of the same or similar trademark in the name of different subjects, it will be rejected by the Trademark Office, which will waste manpower, material resources and financial resources and affect the development of the enterprise.

2. Mistakes in using trademarks

① Changing registered trademarks without authorization

According to the requirements of China's trademark laws and regulations, the actually used trademarks must be consistent with the registered trademarks, but some enterprises are not aware of this, and there are cases of changing trademarks at will. This is because when many enterprises apply for registered trademarks, the fonts or styles they choose often do not take into account the actual use needs. When they decide to use trademarks, they find that the fonts and styles they originally registered do not meet the actual needs, such as packaging and decoration, so they are inevitably changed for the sake of beauty. In fact, it is not impossible to use the trademark after the change, but the problem is that some enterprises just mark it superfluous? As a result, it constitutes an illegal act of changing a registered trademark by itself, which is prohibited by the Trademark Law.

② Cross-category use of registered trademarks

When some enterprises just set foot in industries similar to or related to the original industry, they take it for granted that they copy the registered trademarks used in the original industry and use them in other categories or goods or services that are of the same category but not approved for use, which constitutes an illegal act of impersonating registered trademarks, and may even infringe on others' prior registered trademark rights.

③ Add elements or use them in combination at will

Some enterprises combine two graphic trademarks or word mark, or a graphic trademark and a word mark into one trademark in order to enhance the aesthetic feeling of the trademark or make the trademark name more fluent, and at the same time mark a registration mark on one of the combined trademarks? . The original intention of the enterprise is to show that a certain trademark that constitutes the whole trademark is a registered trademark, but it causes the whole combined trademark to be an objective expression of the registered trademark, which constitutes the act of impersonating a registered trademark.

There are huge hidden dangers in the mistakes of the above enterprises. Once they are reported or investigated by the industrial and commercial (market supervision) departments, the enterprises will be passive.

3. Mistakes in other affairs

① In the sale (transfer) of trademarks, some enterprises did not consider the particularity of the transaction object, resulting in mistakes. The most common mistake is to ignore whether the traded trademark has been licensed by the seller (transferor), whether it has not been used for three consecutive years, and whether it is nearing renewal. If the licensed use of the trademark is not clear when the trademark is transferred, it is very likely that the trademark ownership can not be used or used alone, leading to disputes. If the trademark is not used for three years in a row or is nearing renewal, the transferee's trademark rights are in an extremely unstable state, and the enterprise may even get an invalid trademark.

② Although some enterprises have applied for registration of a large number of trademarks, most of them are not actually used. These unused trademarks are either used as trademark resources reserves or registered as joint trademarks in defensive trade mark. Because China's Trademark Law does not clearly stipulate the joint trademark and defensive trade mark, it stipulates that if a registered trademark is not used for three years in a row, anyone can apply to the Trademark Office to cancel the trademark. If an enterprise shelves it after obtaining the exclusive right to use a registered trademark and does not adopt corresponding methods to show that the trademark has actually been used, these trademarks are still unsafe, and it is easy for others to apply for cancellation, which poses great risks. These should be taken seriously.

here, xiaobian still has to be a cliche, warning all startups: the product has not moved, and the trademark comes first! Layout trademarks in advance, and do a good job in multi-category registration of trademarks and related trademarks. If there are trademarks composed of English and Chinese characters, it is best to register them all, not just English, and do a good job in comprehensive trademark layout to ensure that there is room for later product expansion and development, and prevent all kinds of infringement and cybersquatting in advance!