Legal protection of corporate brands

Brand protection is essentially the protection of the intellectual property rights contained in the brand, that is, the brand’s trademarks, patents, trade secrets, domain names and other intellectual property rights To protect. How to use legal means to protect the brand? Let’s take a look!

1. Trademark registration

The main form of brand intellectual property rights is trademark rights. Due to the exclusive nature of trademark rights, trademarks are a monopoly advantage of enterprises in legal terms. The strength of this monopoly advantage is directly proportional to the popularity of the trademark. The greater the popularity of the trademark, the stronger the monopoly advantage, and the more excess profits the company that owns the trademark can obtain. Due to their outstanding reputation, well-known trademarks have widespread influence in the minds of consumers and are a huge asset for enterprises.

However, some companies lack awareness of brand protection, resulting in many well-known brands being registered. The main problems currently faced by brand development are counterfeiting of famous brands, trademark squatting and "famous brand imitation". The phenomenon of squatting registration of some famous trademarks is also extremely serious: "Tongrentang", "Zhuyeqing", "Goubuli", etc. were registered by the Japanese; "Tsingtao Beer" was registered in the United States; "Hongtashan" and "Yunyan" are now registered The trademarks of Hisense and other Chinese companies were registered in the Philippines by competitor Siemens in Germany. Preemptive registration of trademarks has caused heavy losses to the company's intangible assets and made it difficult to expand the market. It may also lead to accusations of infringement.

The first thing to do in the legal protection of a group brand is the registration of the group’s trade name. The trade name mainly refers to the part of the business name used by operators engaged in production or business activities to express their business name when registering. It is a factory, store The specific logos and names of enterprises, companies, groups and other enterprises shall enjoy the exclusive right to use them in accordance with the law. Trade name rights belong to the category of industrial property rights defined in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Trade names obtained through legal registration are protected by law.

When conducting legal protection for a group, we need to register not only the group name, but also the group’s Chinese and English abbreviation, fonts, patterns, standard colors, auxiliary colors, etc. Not only register in one place, but also consider the principle of registration priority in different countries and register abroad first to prevent others from infringing.

2. Cherish trademark rights

After an enterprise obtains the exclusive right to use a trademark in accordance with the law, it must also pay attention to the following four issues:

(1) Registered trademarks are time-sensitive , pay attention to renewal. Trademark rights are temporal and are only valid within the statutory period of existence and are protected by law. Once the validity period expires, the trademark rights will be lost and no longer protected by law. Therefore, companies should renew their trademarks before they expire. A registered trademark is valid for 10 years, and each subsequent renewal is valid for 10 years. There is no limit to the number of renewals.

(2) Check the trademark announcement regularly and file objections in a timely manner. Trademark announcement is a necessary procedure for trademark registration and is also a way for enterprises to obtain rights relief. Article 30 of my country’s Trademark Law stipulates: ?With respect to a trademark that has been initially approved, anyone may raise an objection within three months from the date of announcement. If there is no objection at the expiration of the announcement period, the registration will be approved, a trademark registration certificate will be issued, and the trademark will be announced. ?Therefore, enterprises should check trademark announcements regularly. Once infringement is discovered, they should promptly raise objections, collect evidence of objections, and protect their legitimate rights and interests to the maximum extent.

(3) Transfer of trademark rights and change of trademark must be registered first. According to the provisions of my country's "Trademark Law", registered trademarks must go to the Trademark Office for registration procedures in the following three situations: changing the name, address or other registration matters of the registrant of the registered trademark; changing the registered trademark.

(4) When a joint venture is transformed, it is particularly important to protect the trademark.

When an enterprise transforms, it will also encounter the problem of trademark ownership. There are two main situations: one is that the enterprise ignores the value of trademark registration and does not conduct quantitative evaluation and pricing during the transformation, and does not use the registered trademark as a corporate asset to participate in the transformation. It is easy to give it to the enterprise after the transformation for free use, resulting in the loss of state-owned and collective assets. This situation is relatively common; the other is that the enterprise does not mention the ownership of the registered trademark in the transformation contract, making the ownership of the trademark rights unclear and the property rights The unclear relationship resulted in future financial disputes.

Dongfang Electric Group, Sinochem Group, General Technology Group, SDIC, China Aviation Supplies and other companies have established relatively complete trademark strategies and actively promoted professionalization, institutionalization and standardization of trademark management. Wuhan Iron and Steel, China Minmetals, COMAC and other companies have strengthened overseas trademark registration and protection, with registration areas all over the world. Companies such as China National Grain Reserve Corporation, Sinosteel Group, Sinotrans & CSC, and China Aviation Oil have established effective trademark and trade name monitoring mechanisms to protect the rights and interests of trademarks and trade names from infringement. They are typical examples of trademark protection.

3. Licensed use

The world-renowned electrical appliance company Electrolux of Sweden invested 450 million Swedish kronor (1 US dollar is equivalent to 7.63 Swedish kronor) to buy back 32 The right to use the "Electrolux" trademark was patented two years ago; Swedish Ericsson Group and JM Construction Company cooperated to build an intelligent residential building in Stockholm.

Brand licensing, also known as trademark licensing, refers to the act of allowing others to use your brand through legal procedures. The owner of the brand is called the licensor, and the party licensed to use the brand becomes the licensee. Licensing others to use a brand is an important right of the licensor. Unlike branding, licensing others to use your brand does not result in a change in the brand entity. The brand is still owned by the licensor himself. Under a brand license, the licensor can obtain brand usage fees, and the licensee obtains the right to use the brand as agreed.

Group brand licensing includes licensing subsidiaries, branches and affiliated companies. While licensing, we must not forget the rights and obligations between each other. Let us license with a goal, rather than license casually. Let the license There is no guarantee, causing the value of the licensed brand to decrease instead of increase. Licensing is a means for us to obtain benefits, not a channel for draining brand equity. When licensing, group brand owners should not forget to sign a licensing contract. The terms of the contract generally include: the validity of the trade name licensing contract; the issue of the licensor exceeding the scope of the license; the legal liability of the licensor and the licensee for breach of contract; the termination of the contract, etc. .

4. Maintain brand rights and interests

Maintaining brand rights and interests in accordance with the law is also an important aspect of "brand protection". China Southern Airlines responded quickly to the malicious registration of trademarks abroad and successfully stopped the infringement. China Resources Group has established a working liaison mechanism with local industrial and commercial authorities to conduct an inventory of companies using the "China Resources" brand across the country, effectively safeguarding the safety of the China Resources brand. PetroChina and Sinopec have vigorously promoted gas stations with counterfeit company trademarks. Among them, Sinopec investigated and dealt with 371 counterfeit gas stations in 2012, effectively safeguarding the rights and interests of consumers and corporate brand rights. ;