Start-up company entrepreneurs focus more on opening up products and channels, and often have no time to take into account trademarks and brands! For this reason, entrepreneurs who have no trademark awareness or do not understand trademark common sense may fall into the trademark trap!

The first pitfall: Not realizing that your behavior is infringing on other people’s trademark rights.

Didi Taxi used "Didi" as the name of its taxi app, without considering whether the trademark was already occupied! The defendant changed its name to "Didi" only after infringement.

Such mistakes stem from incomplete understanding of trademarks. According to my country's Trademark Law, under the same trademark category, a trademark is exclusive, and repeated registration and use of other people's registered trademarks is not allowed! Insufficient knowledge of trademarks may lead to infringement of other people's trademark rights.

Second Pitfall: Since I had just started my business, there were no professionals within the company who were mainly responsible for following up on trademark registration, so I kept putting off the trademark matter until it became a chronic illness.

Procrastination will delay things, and in the case of trademarks, it may be a matter of life and death, success or failure. Job positions in entrepreneurial companies are generally not as broken down as in large companies, and many people have multiple responsibilities. The advantage is that it can train people's comprehensive abilities and help them to be independent as soon as possible. The disadvantage is that some tasks are easily overlooked, such as trademark registration.

When a company does not have a clear person in charge of intellectual property rights, and if the leadership has limited understanding of trademark registration, trademark registration and protection matters are likely to be shelved!

The third pitfall: thinking that "wait until the company grows before registering multiple categories of trademarks."

Many companies in the growth stage focus on expanding their brand influence, but ignore the legal protection of their brands! As a result, many companies discovered that their trademarks had been registered only after they became famous. Beijing Backlock Technology Co., Ltd. has just announced that it will rename ofo’s exclusive bicycle to ofo’s yellow bike. However, in the key categories of goods and services related to shared bicycles, the "Little Yellow Car" trademark has been registered by others.

Multi-category registration is one of the necessary measures for companies to protect their brands. On the one hand, it can prevent others from vicious competition and gain fame, on the other hand, it can also help the long-term layout and multi-field development of corporate brands.

Biao Xiaomei has something to say: With the strengthening of people's trademark awareness, the traditional method of "choosing a name--putting it into use--promoting it" has gradually changed to-"deciding a name- -Inquiry and registration--Putting into use--Brand promotion--Brand protection". Such brand usage regulations may seem cumbersome but are actually the best protection for intellectual property rights. Starting a business is not easy. Only by avoiding the pitfalls that can be avoided on the road to starting a business can the road go smoother.