Article 49 of the Trademark Law stipulates that if the trademark is not used for three consecutive years without justifiable reasons, any unit or individual may apply to the Trademark Office to cancel a registered trademark.

With the enhancement of trademark awareness, the number of trademark applications and registrations continues to increase. Some "idle trademarks" that are not used after approved registration have become "rights obstacles" to future trademark registrations. It has become an option for many trademark applicants to apply for cancellation of non-use for three consecutive years. In this case, it is particularly important to preserve genuine evidence of trademark use.

What content can be used as evidence of trademark use?

1 Invoice

A true and valid product sales invoice or service provision invoice can effectively confirm the use of a registered trademark. However, many companies only fill in the abbreviation when filling in invoices. These invoices have nothing to do with the registered trademark and cannot be sufficient and effective evidence of use. Therefore, when filling in invoices, they must be careful and standardized to leave strong evidence for the use of the trademark.

2 Contracts or agreements

Contracts and agreements are important evidence and basis for economic entities to participate in economic activities. However, some contracts or agreements do not indicate trademarks and cannot be evidence of effective use. Therefore, when entering into contracts and agreements, trademarks must be clearly indicated. It is best to write the name and registration number of the registered trademark to leave effective evidence of the use of the trademark.

3 Advertising

Advertising is an important way for enterprises to promote their trademarks, products and services, and it is also a good evidence material. However, some advertising methods, such as video advertising, cannot provide time information of the advertisement, which is difficult to use as direct evidence to prove trademark usage. Therefore, an advertising contract signed with an advertising company, as long as the trademark name is indicated in the contract, can be used as evidence of effective use.

4 Packaging

Packaging includes product packaging, service equipment packaging or utensils. A simple package or container makes it difficult to determine the exact time it was printed and used, so other evidence is needed to prove it. If the contract is signed with the printing house when entrusting printing, the contract should indicate the trademark name.

5 Product Inspection Report

Product inspection reports issued by authoritative organizations such as superior quality supervision departments and industry associations are good evidence of trademark use.

The above evidence only lists commonly used evidence. When a trademark is actually used, a large amount of direct or indirect evidence will be generated. We should pay attention to storage, and we should also pay attention to some issues in the process of withdrawing review and providing evidence.

What issues should we pay attention to when providing evidence?

First, evidence of use must be provided within the specified three years, or evidence of use not within three years may be provided as a reference. The evidence of use provided by the trademark owner should be within the prescribed three years, and the evidence of effective use should generally reflect the specific time of use, user and trademark logo.

The use of the second type of evidence should be true, open and legal. Evidence of trademark use should be used in the field of commercial circulation, not internal use or representative use, that is, objective and true evidence of application is required. Evidence of internal use, such as letterhead, stationery, application area logos, employee logo clothing, etc. , generally deemed not to be used publicly and can only be used as auxiliary reference evidence. Representative use evidence, such as newspaper declaration of use, simple transfer contract, license agreement or publication of other trademark information, is generally not considered trademark use and needs to be comprehensively determined based on case evidence materials.

Third, the evidence provided should be as complete and comprehensive as possible, ultimately forming a probabilistic advantage of probative power. The evidence of trademark use provided by the trademark owner should be mutually confirmed and form a complete chain of evidence. The evidence of use provided should reflect various factors of trademark use as much as possible, such as the trademark logo on the sales contract and corresponding sales invoice, as well as the trademark owner, trademark logo and date. Otherwise, in the absence of effective basic information, it is difficult to determine whether the product with a registered trademark is actually commercially traded in the circulation field.

Applying for trademark registration is not easy. Unfortunately, if someone else files a "withdrawal" because they haven't used it for three consecutive years, they lose their trademark.

As long as our trademark holders consciously retain and sort out their complete evidence of trademark use during the business process, we can effectively fight back if anyone proposes "withdrawal"!