At present, there are four ways for China enterprises to apply for "well-known trademarks":

1, identified in the trademark objection.

Trademark objection refers to a trademark that has passed the preliminary examination of the Trademark Office. Before obtaining the registered trademark certificate, the Trademark Office will make an announcement first, and anyone can raise reasonable objections during the announcement period. In the process of raising objections, the applicant may apply for the recognition of its trademark as a well-known trademark at the same time.

2. Identification in trademark disputes

Trademark dispute means that an enterprise considers that a registered trademark infringes its own trademark and applies to the Trademark Office for cancellation of the registered trademark. At the same time of revoking the other party's trademark, you can apply for recognizing your own trademark as a well-known trademark.

3. Identification of trademark counterfeiting.

If a trademark is counterfeit, it means that the goods using the trademark are very popular. Based on this, if the local industrial and commercial bureau finds that there are acts of counterfeiting the trademark in the process of counterfeiting, it can request the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to identify the trademark as a well-known trademark according to the application of the parties concerned.

4. People's courts at or above the intermediate level

According to Article 22 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Trademark Civil Disputes: "In the trial of trademark disputes, the people's court may, according to the request of the parties and the specific circumstances of the case, determine whether the registered trademark involved is well-known according to law."

Advantages and disadvantages of the four methods:

1, apply for trademark objection

Applicant: Trademark Office of State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Prerequisite: There must be a trademark that is the same as or similar to the trademark applied for as a "well-known trademark" during the announcement period.

Difficulties: The probability that the target trademark can be the object of objection and meet the conditions for applying for "well-known trademark" during the announcement period is very small. If you apply for registration, there are two levels: 1. It is difficult to apply for registration, and it is very likely that it will be rejected directly and cannot enter the announcement period. 2. Even if you can enter the announcement period, there will be a waiting process of two or three years from application to announcement.

Advantages: relatively direct, with few intermediate links, you can apply directly to the State Trademark Office, and the upfront cost is relatively small.

Disadvantages: it is difficult to find the target trademark. Even if the target trademark is found, the other party will work hard after entering the objection stage, and the objection time becomes unpredictable. Re-applying for a qualified target trademark is not practical, it takes a long time, and there are still many unknown factors that cannot be grasped.

Such "well-known trademarks" are found every year.

It should be noted that to apply for trademark objection, in addition to submitting the application, making demands and listing the reasons for objection, a trademark objection fee of 1 1,000 yuan is also required for each piece. At present, this identification method takes 2-3 years.

2. Applicable to trademark disputes

Applicant: Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Prerequisite: there must be a registered trademark that is the same as or similar to the well-known trademark applied for, and as far as possible within the five-year dispute period.

Difficulties: As mentioned above, the target trademark is hard to find. If it takes longer to reapply than the first method, it will take at least three years to submit an application for recognition of "well-known trademark".

Advantages and disadvantages: same as the first method.

Well-known trademarks identified in this way exist every year.

It should be noted that to apply for a trademark dispute, in addition to submitting an application, making a claim and listing the reasons for the dispute, each piece also needs a trademark dispute fee of 1500 yuan. At present, this identification method takes 2-3 years.

3. Apply for trademark counterfeiting.

Applicant: After being audited by the local municipal and provincial industrial and commercial bureaus, it shall be reported to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for confirmation.

Advantages: Compared with the above two schemes, this scheme is the most convenient, and it does not need to rely on any existing announced trademarks or registered trademarks, but it is necessary to objectively exist trademark infringement cases, and the goods used for infringing trademarks must be different from those used for applying for trademarks. Relatively speaking, in this way, enterprises can control themselves and design their own schemes in a relatively short time.

At present, this appraisal method generally takes about one year to one and a half years. Among them, it takes about 3 months for enterprises to sort out evidence materials and find infringement cases. The statutory time for the municipal and provincial industrial and commercial bureaus to review is 15 working days, and the statutory ruling time for the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is 6 months.

Disadvantages: There are many industrial and commercial organizations involved and many intermediate links, which require good planning and operation. Because of the phenomenon of goose plucking, the cost will be relatively large.

It is common to identify "well-known trademarks" in this way. At present, this method is the main way for enterprises to apply for the recognition of well-known trademarks.

4, the court found that

Applicant: People's courts at or above the intermediate level in provincial capital cities and cities under separate state planning.

Question: The court found that well-known trademarks and industrial and commercial bureaus are not one way, but another identification system. Well-known trademarks recognized by the court do not need to be re-recognized or certified by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The court found that well-known trademarks can only be identified in cases of enterprise name infringement and trademark infringement litigation.

Advantages: it takes a short time and can be identified in about half a year. Due to the different quality of judges in local courts, local courts have a loose grasp of the conditions stipulated by law, and enterprises with poor conditions like to identify well-known trademarks in this way.

Disadvantages: 1 Due to the public's doubts about the court's recognition of well-known trademarks, it is more and more difficult for the court to recognize them. Before the general judgment, it needs to be reported to the Provincial High Court for review, and after the judgment takes effect, it needs to be reported to the Supreme Court for the record; 2. At present, some courts publicly charge high fees for well-known trademark identification cases, and even some judges privately charge fees, which leads to an upward trend in the cost of this identification method; 3. In recent years, the well-known trademarks recognized by the courts have proliferated, and the well-known trademarks recognized by some courts have low popularity. In addition, the phenomenon of counterfeiting by individual applicants is serious, which leads to the decline of the credibility of well-known trademarks recognized by the court in the public; 4. Due to the tradition of official standard in China, some enterprises and the public think that the well-known trademarks recognized by the Intermediate People's Court have no authority recognized by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and some excellent enterprises disdain to recognize well-known trademarks in this way; 5. Some local governments do not reward or reward half of the well-known trademarks recognized by the court; 6, some local industrial and commercial departments do not attach importance to the protection of well-known trademarks recognized by the court. 7. In principle, local governments do not reward well-known trademarks recognized by the courts. The first three have nearly three million government awards.

This way of identifying "well-known trademarks" is very common, especially for enterprises with poor conditions.

Two. Evaluation factors of well-known trademarks

The main criterion for determining whether a trademark is a well-known trademark in China is that it enjoys a high reputation in the market and is well known by the relevant public. According to the provisions of Article 14 of the Trademark Law, the following factors should be considered when identifying well-known trademarks:

1. Public awareness of the trademark.

According to the second paragraph of Article 2 of the Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of Well-known Trademarks, the relevant public includes consumers related to the use of certain goods or services marked by trademarks, other operators and sellers who produce the above-mentioned goods or provide services, and relevant personnel involved in distribution channels. For example, goods or services using a trademark belong to the field of computer information technology, and the degree of knowledge of the trademark by many people associated with the field of computer information technology is "the degree of knowledge of the trademark by the relevant public". Many people who have nothing to do with the field of computer information technology know or don't know the trademark, which does not affect that the trademark is recognized as a well-known trademark. In other words, being well-known doesn't mean being known by everyone or having a high reputation among all the public, but it means being well-known among relevant consumers, that is, it doesn't have to be "widely known".

2. The term of use of the trademark

The main way for trademark owners to use and exercise the exclusive right to use trademarks is to use their trademarks. No matter whether the trademark is registered or not, only the use can reflect its value in the transaction and transform the intangible property right of the trademark into material wealth. For unregistered trademarks, only continuous use can reflect the existence of their trademarks, and it is possible to generate distinctiveness through use, thus generating popularity among the relevant public. Otherwise, the public will not know these trademarks, let alone well-known trademarks. For registered trademark owners, it is their obligation to use trademarks. Therefore, it is very necessary to take the service life of a trademark as a factor in identifying a well-known trademark. According to the second paragraph of Article 3 of the Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of Well-known Trademarks, relevant materials proving the service life of the trademark, including the history and scope of the use and registration of the trademark.

3. The duration, degree and geographical scope of any publicity work on trademarks.

In today's increasingly fierce market competition, both the producers of goods and the operators of services take the promotion of their products as the top priority, and the publicity efforts are also increasing. Especially with the development of communication technology and information network technology, the publicity effect of TV, radio, internet, newspapers and other publicity media is becoming more and more obvious. Many people's understanding of a brand (trademark) comes from various advertisements of manufacturers or operators. Therefore, by knowing the duration, degree and geographical scope of any publicity work of a trademark, we can clearly know the public awareness of the trademark in a certain area. According to Item 3 of Article 3 of the Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of Well-known Trademarks, relevant materials to prove the duration, degree and geographical scope of any publicity work of the trademark, including advertising and promotion activities, geographical scope, types of publicity media, advertising volume and other relevant materials.

4. The record that the trademark is protected as a well-known trademark.

If a trademark has been protected as a well-known trademark in China, the trademark owner can provide relevant documents, which is of great reference value for judging whether the trademark has a well-known trademark. If a trademark has been protected as a well-known trademark abroad, the trademark owner can also provide various supporting documents to identify the trademark as a well-known trademark. These documents also play an important reference role in the identification of well-known trademarks in China. According to Item 4 of Article 3 of the Provisions on the Recognition and Protection of Well-known Trademarks, the relevant materials that prove that the trademark is protected as a well-known trademark include the relevant materials that the trademark is protected as a well-known trademark in China or other countries and regions.

Three. Experience value in the application and operation of well-known trademarks

According to the provisions of Article 14 of the Trademark Law, combined with our experience in assisting outstanding enterprises to declare and identify well-known trademarks in China, we believe that enterprises that basically meet the following minimum requirements can try to declare and identify well-known trademarks in China. Of course, this is not a national standard, and the data requirements of each industry will be different, so this article is only for the reference of enterprises.

1. Except in special circumstances, the registered capital of the trademark owner enterprise is not less than1000000 yuan, and the actual assets are more than 50 million yuan.

2, trademark registration and use time should be more than 5 years, use time is short and difficult to identify.

3. In principle, the trademark shall be a famous trademark of the province, city and district.

4. The existing value of the trademark should be more than100000 yuan according to the evaluation of relevant institutions.

5. The annual output value of the goods used by the trademark owner enterprises in the past three years has exceeded 654.38+0 billion yuan, and the annual sales income should in principle exceed 50 million yuan, ranking the top 20 in the same industry in China.

6. The tax paid by the trademark owner enterprise in recent three years should be more than100000 yuan.

7. The product market is not limited to the local market. Products are sold to at least half of the provinces and cities in China, and it is best to have a nationwide sales network. It is better to sell the products abroad. In other words, the sales area of goods using the trademark should cover the main areas of the country.

8. Trademarks should be publicized through various channels in an all-round and uninterrupted manner. The advertising expenses of provincial and central media in recent three years shall not be less than100000 yuan per year. Publicity includes advertisements, soft articles, event titles and outdoor activities.

9. Enterprises should be the governing units of national trade associations and chambers of commerce.

10, the enterprise is the maker of industry standards, and the participants are the best.

1 1. The main products of the enterprise won the title of the best brand product in China.

12, the main products of the enterprise won the title of national inspection-free best product.

13, it doesn't matter whether the trademark has been registered.

14, it doesn't matter if the enterprise is small, but the industry ranking is the key. Because enterprises in some industries are small.

15, large enterprises may not meet the requirements, because perhaps all enterprises in this industry are large enterprises.