Nowadays, entrepreneurial incubators are blooming in cities of all tiers, and companies are listed on the U.S. capital market one after another. Behind today’s popular wave, we also see the serious lack of intellectual property protection awareness and awareness in the entrepreneurial wave. environment. I think everyone should be very clear about the importance of trademarks.

In addition to Momo being preemptively registered, Didi Dache was forced to change its name to Didi Dache, there was also the trademark conflict between Guangzhou Automobile and Changan, the tug-of-war over Tesla’s trademark, etc. These tragic events The cases tell us that we must not have the intention of harming others, and we must not have the intention of preventing and protecting others. Now let’s talk about how start-ups protect their trademarks.

After the establishment of the company, many entrepreneurs quickly invest in expanding their business and market, often ignoring trademark issues, which creates legal risks for the development of the company. In fact, we must be clear that the name of an enterprise is not equivalent to a trademark. The name of an enterprise is regional, but the registration of a trademark is unique. A trademark is only owned and used by the actual registrant. Use by others constitutes infringement. More commonly speaking, trademark rights are the rights to use a name. If we register it, others cannot use it. Therefore, we must pay attention to the protection of trademark rights, enhance awareness of trademark registration, and treat trademark rights as part of the company's daily operations.

Trademark rights are linked to products and services. A trademark generally does not need to protect all product categories. The author believes that it is unrealistic and meaningless for entrepreneurs to apply for trademark registration in all categories. Therefore, we need to understand our products and services to determine which categories of trademarks should be registered, and register them by category according to the fields or industries to be protected.

A company's products and services often involve multiple categories. In order to protect our trademarks from infringement, we often register protective trademarks, and this includes two aspects, one is the registration category, and the other is the registration category. It means that we don’t want others to use our trademark name to register categories. At this time, we must try our best to consider the areas where future projects may be extended; in addition, it is the defensive registration of small trademarks. The purpose of protection registration is to prevent us from using such trademarks and not allow other companies to use them, otherwise there will be endless troubles.

According to the provisions of Article 8 of the Trademark Law, any mark that can be distinguished from the goods of others, including words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional marks, color combinations and sounds, etc., as well as the above elements Any combination can be applied for registration as a trademark. Many companies wait until the product is perfect before registering a trademark. In fact, once the product name is determined, we can apply for trademark registration. According to experience, text-based trademark registration is easier to pass. Therefore, when applying for registration, it is recommended to register text and graphics separately and not to register text and graphics. Because if one of the words or graphics fails to pass, you will have to resubmit the registration application, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. The most important thing is that it will delay the better registration protection time. We will apply for registration after our products are perfected.

As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses are moved, food and grass go first? To protect the brand, trademark registration must come first. According to the provisions of Article 31 of the Trademark Law, if two or more trademark registration applicants apply for registration of the same or similar trademarks on the same goods or similar goods, the application shall be initially reviewed and announced. If the application is filed on the same day, the earlier trademark will be preliminarily reviewed and announced, and other applications will be rejected and will not be announced. ?That is to say, the current domestic trademark legal protection adopts the "first to apply principle". Therefore, the author recommends that entrepreneurs should immediately apply for a trademark when determining a trademark to seize the opportunity.

Always pay attention to the company's trademark trends to ensure that it is not withdrawn, trademark common name application, etc. For registered trademarks, they should be renewed in a timely manner. If there are changes, they should be changed and transferred in a timely manner in accordance with the law.

Trademark inquiry (within 2 days)? Preparation of application documents (within 3 days)? Submission of application (within 2 days)? Payment of trademark registration fees? Trademark form review (1 month)? Issuing a trademark acceptance notice? Trademark substantive examination (12 months)? Trademark announcement (3 months)? Issuance of trademark certificate

1. Before determining the product name or the trademark name you want to register, it is recommended to log in to the trademark website to check Whether the name has been registered as a trademark by another company. Once you find that the good name you thought of has been registered, dear, don't worry about it and change it quickly.

2. Trademark approval means that even if the name is exactly the same, it can be applied for and approved as long as it is not in the same category. In addition, as long as the trademark you apply for is clearly distinguishable from existing trademarks, it may be approved even if it contains the same words. This is why both “Beijing Daohuaxiang” and “Daohuaxiang” have been approved as registered trademarks.

3. If you are not sure which type of trademark your company should apply for, you can find a well-known company with similar business content as a reference to see what categories others have applied for, and then register it based on your own situation. Apply.

4. For combined trademarks, such as Chinese, English and graphics, it is recommended to apply separately. Separate applications can be used in combination, but trademarks filed in combination are not protected when used separately.

5. Trademark registration is a long process. It is recommended that the company register its trademark at the beginning of its establishment.