Trademark agency business includes trademark application, trademark ownership dispute resolution, rights protection, infringement handling, etc. Therefore, a qualified trademark agent should also understand relevant laws and regulations such as civil law and criminal law; at the same time, due to the geographical scope of trademark rights In addition, agents engaged in foreign-related trademark agency business also need to be proficient in at least one foreign language and familiar with international intellectual property laws and regulations. Trademark agency service is a highly professional service and falls under the legal services category of law firms in many countries.
Trademark agency is not just a trademark registration application, but also simple tasks such as filling out a trademark application form. In addition to being familiar with and understanding the trademark registration process and relevant laws and regulations, a trademark agent should also be knowledgeable and knowledgeable. Extensive knowledge, while also needing to fully understand economic life and its industry development, and provide professional and guiding opinions and suggestions to customers. In addition, trademark agents and agency organizations themselves must abide by laws and regulations, be honest and trustworthy.
Although my country's current trademark law regulates trademark agency organizations and trademark agency practitioners, there are now more than 20,000 trademark agency organizations nationwide, and the level and ability of practitioners vary. For example, some practitioners Practitioners with less than six months of experience and little knowledge of trademarks can also call themselves trademark agents; a small number of trademark agencies and personnel lack professional ethics and industry standards and contract business through deception, fraud and other means, causing irreparable losses to customers.
The chaos and countermeasures in the trademark agency industry mainly include:
Low price, free: A reasonable price is the price for purchasing any goods and services. As the saying goes, there is no free lunch in the world. Cheap products are not good products. Trademark agency also has personnel, rent and other costs. After all, competition with lower than reasonable prices or even "free" cannot last long, and low prices can easily lead to low quality to a certain extent; and some trademark agents use "low price" and "free" in the early stage. They solicit business under the guise of "expedited" or "internal clearing", etc., or deliberately set up obstacles in the inquiry, application and other procedures to earn later review fees, objection defense fees, etc.
Deception: Some trademark agents deceive clients in the name of fake objections, fake reviews, etc. What’s more, they charge clients’ fees and then refuse to handle the case or simply leave the agency empty. When the author was representing other clients in handling trademark infringement matters, I also received a so-called trademark registration application acceptance notice and a copy of the trademark registration certificate from the local industrial and commercial administration. After investigation, these documents were found to be forged.
In addition to the above-mentioned individual cases, the low quality, insufficient ability and lack of experience of trademark agents are also one of the factors leading to chaos. For example, they do not conduct inquiries before trademark application or provide wrong inquiry opinions, and do not provide legal advice after trademark rejection. Conducting analysis and research and providing advice that lacks professionalism or is even wrong will not only cause customers to lose money, but also cause damage to customers' rights without knowing the truth. In addition, there are some trademark agency organizations or practitioners who rush to register the trademarks of other companies or even their own customers.
Trademark rights are intangible assets of enterprises. Excellent and honest trademark agents can play a vital role in promoting the brand building and even business development of enterprises. Compared with other countries and regions and trademark agencies, In terms of the energy and time people spend on trademark inquiry and analysis, in our country, the 1,500 to 2,000 yuan required for a trademark application is extremely limited. Or negligence leads to the loss of trademark rights, which is a typical case of petty loss but big loss.
Trademarks are important signs used to distinguish the source of different goods and services. In my opinion, it is unimaginable for a company not to have its own trademark. The so-called "century-old store", its logo is the brand, and its way of survival and development is the trademark or brand. For trademark agencies or trademark agency practitioners, "brand" is not only related to the development of customers, but also related to the development of themselves and the entire agency industry.
Therefore, choosing a reliable trademark agency is a major thing that every company needs to do when it comes to trademark business. As the saying goes, "Expensive means cheap". An extra two or three hundred yuan will result in tens of thousands or even more risk aversion. What's unacceptable?