[A brand must always follow the rhythm of trademark law if it wants to dance happily in the market.] This sentence is selected from ZHANG Yuemei’s The 100 Common Knowledge Points that Everyone Needs to Know.
Who must read it: enterprise principals, brand supervisors, companies’ IP managers, entrepreneurs
Common Strange Phenomena
We have good products and then need good brand to promote them, the better the goods are, along with good brand marketing, the better and better the enterprise’s income will definitely be.
However, as the goods are more reproducible and replaceable, what represents the enterprise’s promise of “high quality, responsibility”?
Of course more information will be conveyed to consumers through the brand.
Law is the best weapon to protect brand, just like computer’s antivirus software which protects the normal operations of computer, registration of trademark will protect the good environment for goods to survive in the market.
However, in modern times, many enterprises still face the problems of preregistration of brand and dilution of brand, even more, at the beginning of the startup, as soon as the products are sold, they face the civil and criminal disputes about trademark infringement to be settled.
What’s the reason for this result?
We should find the source and endeavor there to avoid unnecessary efforts by enterprises, so this is a question worth further thinking.
Where is the source?
We have concluded large amount of cases and after communicating with enterprises find out the major 2 sources:
(1) There are misunderstanding of the enterprise leaders’ awareness and perception of IP; some leaders really consider trademark registration spending 1000 yuan for a trademark application.
(2) Ignorance of which key links in trademark registration to be seized. Enterprise managers’ IP awareness turns out to be the key to determine the enterprises’ IP competitiveness.
In this regard, I agree with Ms. ZHANG Yuemei’s following words:
“’Leader’s thoughtful emphasis’ is definitely not cliché or empty talk. Practice has proved that, no matter in government or enterprise, generally things emphasized by leaders will be successful and the determination and protection of trademark rights are naturally no exception.”
As early as June 5, 2008, along with the promulgation of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, China promoted intellectual property into the level of national strategy. Therefore, whether IP could be the strategy for enterprise development depends on leaders.
In 2016, http://www.chinanews.com/ once published an article to list embarrassing events of Chinese enterprises in international exhibitions which led to this conclusion:
Lack of IP awareness has become an important factor to restrain the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises.
Four years has passed, we found out that, the popularization of IP awareness and correct perception are still the key of keys of the work.
What key questions to seize?
We have learned that trademark registration is the core presentation of brand’s legal protection. Then, how to better utilize the legal system of trademark registration?
The decency or lowness of brand protection is definitely determined by enterprise principal or brand supervisor, especially in the following aspects which need their insightful understanding:
(1) Whether the brand can develop for long term in a stable way depends on whether the basic protection upon trademark registration is solid;
(2) Trademark registration should be with foresight;
(3) Trademark registration should be defensive;
(4) Trademark registration, which is a work of great details, needs professional team to horn the details.
In concrete operations, the following key links should be seized:
The necessity of understanding trademark reserve strategy
Up to now, there are still some enterprises advertising and planning without trademark registration certificate, this reflects the serious lack of responsibility for the enterprise’s brand.
This is because if the trademark is not registered successfully, more money and energy should be spent to the solving of trademark registration problem, and if it fails, the brand’s name will be forced to be changed.
Therefore, there is an old saying “trademark goes before the market”. Since the legislation of China’s trademark law in 1982, 40 years has passed, the trademark reserve strategy is still strange to many entrepreneurs and enterprise managers.
Infringement risk evaluation shall be made before the unregistered trademark enters the market
If the trademark is not registered successfully but shall definitely enter the market to be used, you must evaluate the infringement risk without touching others’ cheese and incurring undeserved catastrophe.
At least two schemes (A and B) shall be prepared in the registration stage
When registering trademark, launch several brands, don’t put 1 egg in 1 basket, as once this egg is broken…
To protect the enterprise’s intangible assets by taking advantage of registered trademark’s defensiveness
When an enterprise’s name or domain name, or the star team operated by an enterprise, and so on is very famous, it should also be included into the scope of trademark registration protection;
Although you won’t use the above names as brands, taking advantage of the legal system about trademark registration, you can protect those intangible assets from being illegally utilized by others. In a manner of speaking, the defensive function of registered trademark is very useful.
In this aspect, DEYUNSHE performs very well, which takes “Bian’er Gege” and “Guo Degang” into protection. Of course, maybe all Chinese people know the powerful IP protection network by Laoganma, as well as the serial defensive measures by Alibaba, which are all worthy reference for enterprise.
When registering the trademark, put emphasis on details! Be patient!
When registering the trademark, put emphasis on the Trademark Inquiry Report and the determination of goods category and project. Especially you should know the structure of category chart, not necessarily proficient in it, but learning some basic rules.
This is not only the key of anti-fraud, but also the key to determine trademark protection scope, at least when your subordinates execute the task you can ask the right key points.
Trademark maintenance and monitoring
The intangible assets, different from the tangible ones, sometimes can be lost without your knowledge, so you should always check “whether the door is locked”.
Therefore, after the trademark registration, maintenance and monitoring are needed to prevent dilution of brand, and you should in good time pay attention to timely extend the scope.
Don’t hesitate to fight infringement!
Timely stop all acts of trademark infringement, don’t hesitate.
Last words
In fact, the arrangement of IP protection is just like the Go, the leader is the player and the subordinates are pieces, the key is how the leadership will put the pieces, and the execution by subordinates is the issue of the second level.
The popular Heytea’s original name is “royal tea”, then the trademark was in trouble and without other choice it changed its name into Heytea, the trademark bought for 700,000 yuan. How many entrepreneurs can spend 700,000 yuan casually?
Locomotive leads the train to go rapidly, you are welcome to forward this article to your boss!
Editor’s words: they are suggestions from Yajia’s consultant, if there are mistakes or inaccuracies, please point out and correct them. We really hope enterprises can spend less unnecessary efforts and money.
Today’s recommendation:
Professional book: The 100 Common Knowledge Points Everyone Needs to Know by ZHANG Yuemei
Statement:
We have not cooperated with Ms. ZHANG Yuemei, the reason why we recommend this book is its lucidity and clarification of many common misunderstandings.
Ms. ZHANG Yuemei, who has worked on trademark review for 13 years and written over one hundred articles on trademark review, is very respectable. We recommend this book because it will help both enterprises and IP professionals.
上一篇：没有了 下一篇：Disadvantages of “One Trademark in Multiple Categories”!2020-09-21
2020-09-21
2020-09-21
