In 2017, the number of trademark registration applications in my country reached 5.748 million, an increase of 55.7% over the previous year; in the first half of 2018, the number of trademark registration applications in my country was 3.586 million, an increase of 58% year-on-year. The number of applications in the first half of 2018 was close to All year 2016. However, the number of trademarks that were finally approved for registration was very limited; many registered trademarks were rejected due to problems such as trademark similarity and lack of distinctiveness, and were not allowed to be registered. Once a registered trademark application is rejected, the energy and money spent by the applicant on the trademark will be wasted.
Before submitting a registered trademark, you need to do the corresponding trademark search work, so that you can have an idea, reduce blindness, and improve the success rate of trademark registration. How should the applicant search for the target trademark?
1. Category selection: Select the category of the trademark. If the category of the trademark query is wrong, the query results will not be accurate. This not only wastes time but also indirectly brings losses to the enterprise.
2. Whether the trademark design name is distinctive: If the trademark itself lacks distinctiveness, or is a word prohibited by trademark law, you need to consult a professional Bajie intellectual property consultant to judge its application. Whether the registration can pass. The "Trademark Law" explicitly requires: (1) Article 10 relates to country names, military emblems, international organization emblems, red crosses, red crescents, ethnically discriminatory and deceptive, harmful moral customs and adverse effects, and county-level divisions. Place names, etc. (2) Article 11 relates to the common names, graphics, models of goods or services, signs describing the characteristics of goods or services, and signs lacking distinctiveness.
3. Identification of similar trademarks: If the applicant does not have professional trademark knowledge, any omissions in any aspect of trademark registration will be in vain. Reduced registration approval rates not only waste time and energy, but also cause lost opportunities for trademark registration. Don't worry about this, just go to the registration number: "Mima Trademark" and reply with the name of the trademark. The online customer service will check the similarity of the trademark for you for free and tell you the success rate of the trademark. We are not in a hurry because we have received professional training and related studies. From trademark application search to actual trademark registration, or "rejection review", we can give applicants professional advice to avoid rejection due to "low-level mistakes". Causing cost waste. After all, the official fees of the Trademark Office are non-refundable regardless of success or failure.
4. Self-registration protection is incomplete
Whether trademark protection is comprehensive depends on the choice of protection for the "category", and more importantly, the protection of the groups included in the "category" selection of goods or services. As for my country's "Registration Classification Table", the Trademark Office will update it once a year to meet the needs of the market economy. For example, in 2014, the National Trademark Office added the "online social network service" sub-item to the 45th category 4505 group. Companies involved in this service need to make timely "re-registrations" of the previous trademarks in 2014 to avoid being used by others. Squatting. However, for the general public, there is very little attention and perception of these "changes", and it is difficult to "fix the leaks" in a timely manner.
Trademark search can fully understand the prior rights situation, which is very beneficial for trademark application registration. At the same time, trademark search can also obtain relevant information, and you can check whether the same or similar goods have already been registered or applied for. The same or similar trademark registration situation can avoid risks and increase the probability of successful registration. If you find that there is an identical or similar previously registered trademark, you can modify or adjust your own trademark. Inquiries can also cause infringement of other people's registered trademarks. In addition, timely trademark inquiries can also provide information on progress.