Trademarks are extremely important intangible assets, bearing almost all the goodwill created by enterprises. The CEO of a multinational company once said that although the company has many major invention patents, compared with a well-known trademark owned by the company, any invention patent of the company is insignificant, and the sum of all invention patents is not comparable to the value of the trademark. Trademark registration and legal risk trademark rights are the rights enjoyed by trademark registrants for their registered trademarks. As a kind of logo, a trademark is not conditional on registration, but if you want a trademark to have patent rights and other rights, you must register it. (I) Legal Risks of Unregistered Trademarks and Misrecognized Logos In China, the principle of registration is adopted for trademark protection, and unregistered trademarks do not have exclusive rights. When it is used by others, the rights cannot be protected. Moreover, when others register first, they may also face the risk that enterprises will not be able to continue to use trademarks or logos. The damage caused by this legal risk not only makes all kinds of brand building invested by enterprises go down the drain, but also requires a lot of expenses for enterprises to re-establish their brands. Therefore, the legal risk of being registered by others belongs to the high risk of enterprises. The law prohibits the registration of generic names as trademarks. Many industries have some common sayings in this industry, but these sayings are not common names from the perspective of trademark registration. When an enterprise uses certain names, especially those that have certain universality, it should carefully identify whether they belong to common names and whether they can register trademarks. Misrecognizing a logo as a generic name that cannot be registered will delay an enterprise's application for trademark registration. Moreover, this kind of mistaken legal risk is a hidden legal risk for enterprise operators, and it is difficult to re-identify the legal risk before a legal crisis actually occurs. (2) Legal risks of not fully exercising the right to apply for a trademark According to the different results of trademark examination, the laws of various countries have stipulated strict examination procedures. China's trademark law stipulates the system of two trials and final adjudication. The first instance is examined by the Trademark Office. The Trademark Office considers that the substance of the application for trademark registration filed by the applicant does not conform to the provisions of the Trademark Law, and makes a notice of rejecting the trademark application. If the applicant has no objection to the reasons for rejecting the application and the legal provisions cited by the Trademark Office, the examination result of the Trademark Office shall be the end. If the applicant refuses to accept the reasons and legal basis of the rejection by the Trademark Office, he may apply to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for reexamination. (III) Trademark application strategy and legal risk Trademark strategy is the integration of overall strategic concepts and strategies and tactics for the makers to use the legal protection provided by the trademark system for their own long-term interests and development, to seek maximum economic benefits in non-technical factor competition and market competition, and to maintain their own non-technical competitiveness advantages. As a branch of trademark strategy, trademark application strategy is to achieve the overall goal of trademark strategy. In trademark application activities, the overall application scheme is determined by considering the influence of different factors such as trademark registration time, application category, trademark text and graphics according to actual needs. Timing of trademark registration and legal risks It generally takes a long time for a trademark to apply for registration. From the perspective of national regulations, it takes about one year for the short and several years for the long. When many enterprises create a brand, they often put it on the market first and then decide whether to register a trademark according to the actual market effect. With the rise of corporate brand awareness, the legal risk of being registered by others is increasing. In addition, the period of trademark registration is long. During the process from application to obtaining a registered trademark, enterprises may be counterfeited or maliciously registered with similar trademarks due to the actual use of trademarks in society. Because the enterprise still does not have the exclusive right to use the trademark at this time, it is impossible to prohibit others' behavior, and the legal risk that the trademark is diluted by malicious behavior is obvious. The legal risks of the lack of defensive trademark registration mainly include: (1) the legal risks of similar or similar trademarks being registered by others. There are many similar or similar trademarks in the same category of goods, which will directly lead to the dilution of trademark rights. Although the law stipulates that a trademark that is confused with another person's registered trademark shall not be registered, the confusion stipulated by law is narrower than the similarity or approximation commonly understood, which makes the legal risk of trademark dilution exist objectively. (2) The legal risk of the same trademark being registered in different categories. In the trademark law, only well-known trademarks can restrict the trademark registration of others across categories. The identification of well-known trademarks is complicated, and most trademarks have a high reputation before they are identified as well-known trademarks. Others register trademarks with the same name in other categories, which will lead to the dilution of the trademark rights of enterprises, not only affecting the corporate image, but also limiting the cross-industry development of enterprises. In addition, trademarks belong to multiple legal subjects in different categories, and it is difficult for the trademark to be recognized as a well-known trademark. Among the legal risks of lack of defensive trademark registration, this risk is more serious than that of similar or similar trademarks, and may even directly lead to the failure of the whole brand strategy of enterprises. The operation mode of intangible assets of all these trademarks needs to be implemented by specific legal schemes, and the lack of legal argumentation or legal system design may bring some legal risks. If it is assessed that the target enterprise has these trademark operation activities, the legal risks of the relevant activities should be measured in a targeted manner.