Trademark is the business card that an enterprise presents to the market. A good business card should condense important information about yourself, express your identity, and demonstrate your taste. In the same way, a successful trademark must serve the purpose of the goods, be registrable in the legal sense, promote in the economic sense, and have strong appeal in the cultural sense. Among them, the main trademark is the core mark of the corporate image and must be registered in the company's target market. So, do you know these two or three things you need to know about trademark use?

Things you need to know about the use of trademarks

Requirements for the use of registered trademarks

The use of trademarks includes using the trademark on goods, product packaging or containers, and on commodity transaction documents, or use the trademark in advertising, exhibitions and other commercial activities.

To use a registered trademark, you can mark the words "registered trademark" or the registration mark (note) or (R) on the goods, product packaging, instructions or other attachments. Anyone who counterfeits a registered trademark will be fined up to 20 RMB of illegal business volume.

Principles of "Four Don's" when using trademarks

Core tip: After the trademark is determined and before use, inquiries should be made to avoid infringement of other people's prior rights and violation of other legal provisions.

Principle of not blindly using indiscriminately

After the trademark is determined and before use, inquiries should be made to avoid infringing the prior rights of others and violating other legal provisions.

The principle of not "doing it all the time"

The popularity of a trademark is gradually formed in the minds of consumers through long-term use and accumulation over time. Frequently changing trademarks will cause consumers to have a weak impression of the brand and even distrust it, which is not conducive to the improvement of trademark visibility.

Do not use the "edge ball" principle

Imitating well-known trademarks and using the influence of well-known trademarks to promote one's own products is speculation and unfair competition. The use of "edge ball" trademarks is indeed Take the next step.

Principle of no "extended service"

The validity period of a registered trademark is ten years. It is illegal to continue to use an expired trademark, so it is very important to renew it in a timely manner.

Trademarks are not products after all. Compared with traditional physical capital, it is difficult to have clear standards to measure future returns. The value of trademark use rights is very flexible, time-sensitive, and will appreciate or depreciate.

Who determines the value

The next question is, if the right to use a trademark can be valued, who determines the value?

Deputy Director of the Municipal Industry and Commerce Bureau Zhou Houwen said that the final price of the trademark is not determined by the enterprise or government department when investing in the right to use a trademark, but needs to be determined through a systematic evaluation of the corresponding trademark by an evaluation agency designated by the relevant department. Although the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Pudong New Area Government have not yet determined which trademark use rights will become pilot projects, four institutions have been identified to evaluate the value of trademark use rights, namely: Shanghai Fushen State-owned Assets Appraisal Company, Shanghai Dongzhou Assets Appraisal Co., Ltd., Shanghai Wanlong Asset Appraisal Company, Shanghai Lixin Asset Appraisal Company.

Although the appraisal agency has been selected, will different appraisal methods bring different appraisal results? Ge Qiquan, chief appraiser of Shanghai Dongzhou Asset Appraisal Co., Ltd., said that the currently internationally recognized appraisal method There are cost method, market comparison method and income method. Theoretically, although the assessment methods are different, but for the same assessment subject, the assessment results should be consistent. But in fact, there are differences between different evaluation methods and the degree of market integration, leading to misunderstandings in the public's recognition of the evaluation value.

Like the cost method, it calculates the average social cost of acquiring the trademark, but the actual use value of the trademark often does not exactly correspond to the average social cost. Therefore, although the average social cost of some trademarks is very high, High, but because it is outdated, its real use value is not high. The premise of using the market comparison method is to find similar or similar trademarks and price them by comparing relevant value differences such as market reputation and market competitiveness. However, the most troublesome thing is that it is difficult to find such similar trademarks.

Industry insiders believe that the income method is the best method for evaluating the value of trademark use rights. This method determines the value by evaluating the excess revenue or cost savings that the trademark can bring. That is to say, if the product sells for 10 yuan before using a certain trademark, and sells for 15 yuan after the trademark is hung, then , these 5 yuan are the excess income obtained by using the trademark, and the value of the trademark can be initially set at 5 yuan.

But trademarks are not products after all. Compared with traditional physical capital, it is difficult to have clear standards to measure future returns. The value of trademark use rights is very flexible and time-sensitive. It will appreciate and depreciate in value. Therefore, after a trademark-use right-valued investment enterprise is successfully registered and established, its external investment, equity transfer, capital withdrawal, debt liquidation and other behaviors will be directly tested by law and integrity.

More importantly, since trademark ownership is separated from the right to use, users' use of trademarks not only has an impact on themselves, but also has a joint impact on the trademark owner. Therefore, the trademark owner also has the right to choose the evaluation agency and can choose different evaluation agencies at the same time for valuation.

You must know that a trademark can bring brand effect to a product and increase the value of the product. So many people want to apply for a trademark. But registering your own trademark is not a simple matter. From the above examples, we can see the importance of trademarks to a company. Here, the editor still wants to make a cliché and call on all start-up companies: before the product is moved, the trademark comes first! Lay a solid foundation for future development.