Strategies for the use of registered trademarks

How to mark and use registered trademarks? Someone said, "Does this question still need to be considered? Put a registered trademark on the product or packaging, and add a circle R. "

It's not that simple. Let's read the newspaper first. On June 5438+February 13, 2004, the 2 1 5 edition of Century Business Herald published a full-page image advertisement of Lenovo and IBM. Careful people will find that there is a small circle R under IMB, and there is a small line at the bottom of the newspaper: "IBMlogo and think". Lenovo is an excellent company in China, but in front of international companies like IBM, the awareness of using registered trademarks is still immature, not to mention other domestic companies.

China's laws stipulate that.

There are provisions on the labeling of registered trademarks. 1999 Article 26 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law (hereinafter referred to as Detailed Rules 4): "When using a registered trademark, the words" registered trademark "shall be marked or the registration mark (note) shall be marked. . If it is inconvenient to mark, it should be marked on the packaging or instructions of the goods and other accessories. " Article 37 of the detailed rules for implementation revised in 2002: "Where a registered trademark is used, a" registered trademark "or a registration mark may be marked on the commodity and its packaging, instructions or other accessories. Registration marks include comments and? . The use of a registered trademark shall be marked in the upper right corner or the lower right corner of the trademark. "

We can analyze the above provisions from two aspects:

1. Should the registered trademark be marked?

1999 The revised Detailed Rules for Implementation seems to be mandatory, and its original intention is that if you are a registered trademark, you must show it to the public. As for where to mark it, there is no restriction, and it can be on the goods, packaging, instructions or other places. The implementation rules revised in 2002 changed "should" to "can" as to whether it should be marked, and it was no longer mandatory to mark. The specific implementation should be subject to the new regulations, that is to say, the use of registered trademarks can be omitted.

2. Marking method of registered trademarks.

According to the revised implementation rules, there are only three ways to mark a registered trademark, that is, adding four Chinese characters "A" and "Note" after the registered trademark, adding a circle to Note, C and R, and adding a circle to R. Other than that, any other marking methods are not in compliance with the law. Note is in Chinese, which is obviously better to use? That's popular all over the world, so we suggest the best use? Mark.

Observing the trademark marking methods of various products, the most common way is to mark the circled R in the upper right corner of the registered trademark. How many products will? Marked in the lower right corner of the registered trademark. Notes are rarely used, and some products put the registration and trademark on both sides of the registered trademark respectively. Registered trademarks should be specifically marked there, and the implementation rules revised in 2002 also stipulate that they should be marked in the upper right corner or the lower right corner of the trademark. We also see that a well-known foreign beverage brand only marks the word "trademark" after registering its trademark, which is not in line with the legal norms. The laws of our country do not have any punishment measures for marking irregular behaviors, but they should be marked according to the law.

We can see that many domestic businesses are actively marking TM, and some enterprises have applied to the State Trademark Office to use TM as a trademark, but they have not yet obtained registration. "TM" is the English abbreviation of registered trademark. No matter what other countries stipulate, China's trademark law does not recognize TM, and it is meaningless to mark "TM" in China.

Learn the labeling methods of foreign companies.

Comparing domestic and foreign products, we will find that the trademarks on the packaging of foreign products are much more eye-catching than those on domestic products. People who love Coca-Cola must be impressed by its packaging. The wavy ribbon patterns in English "Coca-Cola" and Chinese "Coca-Cola" are particularly eye-catching, accounting for nearly three quarters of the packaging logo. These three are trademarks of Coca-Cola Company, and their trademarks give people a great impact. Their trademark is the first thing that catches the eye. You can compare the packaging of well-known domestic brands. Logos, the packaging of domestic enterprises, is also carefully designed and very beautiful, but it takes a lot of effort to find R with rings, and we are huddled in a corner. I feel that domestic enterprises are dealing with legal provisions, just mark them in one place.

I once participated in a training of Borland Company in the United States. From its brochure to samples, the company's circles R and TM are followed by the company's trademark everywhere, and there are at least 9 circles R and TM on a demo disc. It seems that foreign companies are afraid that others will not know. On the packaging, products and instructions, as long as the circled R appears in the registered trademark of their company, it will follow closely. Let's compare the two best-selling anti-virus software in China, carefully search the product packaging and product CD, but never see it? Or the shadow of "registered trademark", we are not even sure whether the software has a registered trademark.

Microsoft has grown into such a giant in decades, and there are too many places worth learning. Let's take a closer look at how Microsoft marks its trademark. Microsoft's registered trademark circled R is also everywhere, appearing in product packaging and CD-ROM, and even in other products containing Microsoft products. We might as well take a closer look. If your computer is using Microsoft's windows operating system, which window pattern is Microsoft's trademark after booting, click "Start" and click "Program" in the menu. If Microsoft office system is installed, you can see the program names such as Excle and Outlook, with a small icon in front of them. These are registered trademarks of Microsoft, and some of them are registered with graphics.

Let's use excel in the office system, click the excel icon, and a box will appear in the middle of the computer screen. The computer may flash by, but we can still see the EXCELE icon and Microsoft's copyright notice inside. This page contains several trademarks of Microsoft. Enter the spreadsheet interface and pay attention to the small green picture in the upper left corner. There is a green X in the small green box, which is the registered trademark of Microsoft, XL pattern (Microsoft Excel logo). From entering the operating system to specific software pages, Microsoft embeds its registered trademark in every page.

This paper studies and analyzes the methods of marking trademarks by foreign companies. To sum up, it is actually very simple: "Where a registered trademark can be marked, it must be marked conspicuously, and a note must be added after the registered trademark? Why our domestic enterprises don't know how to do it is a question of consciousness. The technology gap is easy to catch up with. If you are unconscious, the gap will be forever.

R is circled to indicate that the registration procedure has been completed, and TM indicates that it is being registered. Because according to the provisions of the Trademark Law, the time for trademark registration generally takes 65438+August, the trademark applicant can mark the TM trademark by himself after receiving the Notice of Trademark Acceptance from the Trademark Office.