trademarks are the product of commodity economy, and their functions and functions are always to distinguish different sources of products and carry goodwill.
In business operations, there are many misunderstandings in the use of trademark marks. Here are some excerpts.
1. what is the meaning of the "TM" mark?
TM(Trade mark), as a mark, is used to declare that related words and LOGO are used as trademarks, and to distinguish the source of products, not ordinary product names or advertising.
the use of p>TM marks is common in foreign trademarks, especially in the United States. American trademarks adopt the principle of trademark protection before use, and registered trademark owners have the obligation to let the public know that the trademark is a registered trademark. Therefore, unregistered trademarks in the United States will use TM marks to inform the trademark use, and registered trademarks will use _ marks to inform the exclusive rights of registered trademarks.
In China, in practice, we often encounter a saying that "TM means the trademark in application, and the TM mark can only be used after submitting the trademark application to the State Trademark Office and receiving the acceptance notice". In fact, this statement is wrong. This statement comes from the following three aspects: on the one hand, it is influenced by the globalization process that China enterprises follow the trend of using foreign trademarks; on the other hand, China's intellectual property legal awareness and system are relatively backward, and Chinese people's understanding of TM mark is immature; on the third hand, it is misleading by intellectual property agencies. After applying, TM mark can be used to guide customers to make up their minds to apply, which will promote trading agent in the case of a long registration period of one or two years.
China law does not clearly define the meaning of TM mark and how to use it. Therefore, TM can be used only after trademark application, and any trademark can use TM mark or not.