How do start-ups protect their trademarks
What is the hottest word nowadays? Capital and entrepreneurship should be among them. This popularity is an incubator that blooms everywhere in all cities, an entrepreneurial dream that is suitable for all ages, men and women, and China enterprises listed in the United States one after another. Behind this popularity, we also see the awareness and environment of intellectual property protection that is seriously lacking in the wave of Internet entrepreneurship in China. Didi, Tesla, Momo and other industry big coffees took turns to stage a trademark tearing bi war. Among them, the story of Didi taxi is the most cruel and forced to change from the original? Tick-tock? Change its name to today's? Didi? I never thought that I was out of the den and into the den, and it was still difficult to get rid of the encirclement and suppression of malicious cybersquatting.
So, how can entrepreneurs protect their brands? This will start with the actual registration of trademarks.
first of all, you have to know that the name of an enterprise is not the same as a trademark. Many people think that their business names are legally approved by the industrial and commercial bureau, and it is natural to use them on their own products. In fact, this is a big misunderstanding. Enterprises in local industrial and commercial registration are only protected by local authorities, and there are no protection measures outside their jurisdiction. For example, Daoxiang Village, there are Daoxiang Village in Beijing, Daoxiang Village in Suzhou and Daoxiang Village in Baoding. In their respective administrative areas, they can exist independently and legally and carry out a series of production and operation.
unlike the regionality of enterprise names, the registration of trademarks is unique. Whoever registered the trademark of Daoxiang Village first, the ownership of this trademark can only be owned and used by the actual registrant, and other enterprises use Daoxiang Village in the same product, which is an infringement of the trademark right of the registrant.
then the question is, what are the forms of registrable trademarks?
first, Chinese characters. Thanks to Uncle Cang Xie for creating Chinese characters, two simple ones? Mo? Together, people can easily think of its use.
second, numbers. Thanks to Arab uncles, it is their outstanding creativity that makes tons of trademark registration appear one after another? 51? With? 91? Sacrifice hundreds of millions to create brilliance.
three, letters. When you speak Chinese, an English word pops up inadvertently, which makes you stand out, and registering an English trademark also makes you stand taller. What's more, the domain name is originally the world of English letters, and registering the domain name as a trademark is more convenient for promotion and management.
fourth, graphics. The graphics are well drawn, and the user must not have run away! A self-created graphic can make people look at it from left to right, fondle admiringly, and double the posture, so its visual impact ability is unmatched by other trademarks. Look at Yao Ming's big face and Uncle Jin's base smile, and make it a trademark, which is absolutely awesome.
fifth, in addition to the above four forms, there are three-dimensional signs, colors and sounds, which are not very common registered trademarks. Unlike Chinese characters and letters, they are easy to identify and easy to print and publicize. However, it does not mean that they are not important. Like? hello,moto? The lion's roar of MGM appears in people's lives so frequently, but it doesn't make people vomit as soon as they hear it, but it is very intriguing. Moreover, Sister Q is here to examine the importance of the sound trademark to the Japanese market with a professional and serious attitude. It is not easy for the butterfly to fly, and pay attention to it and cherish it!
VI. A trademark made up of all the above elements. Here, it is necessary for Sister Q to remind that when the Trademark Office greatly examines the combined trademark, it will disassemble the elements of the combined trademark and review them separately. Just like a very beautiful face, if you examine it separately, experienced people can tell the truth at a glance. Well, this nose belongs to Li Shifu Long at the entrance of the village, and this double eyelid was made by Aunt Wang, right? As for the combined trademark, the trademark application will be rejected only if any element has a similar trademark registered, so it is recommended that each part of the combination be disassembled to apply for a trademark when applying for a trademark. Even if some of them are rejected, they will not sit on other parts.
let's talk about category selection after we finish the form. Trademark 1 * * * has nearly 1, kinds of goods in 45 categories. At the time of application, one category is regarded as an application unit, and each category charges 8 yuan (limited to 1 commodities of this category). For more than 1 commodities, each commodity will be charged 8 yuan). This only refers to the fees paid to the Trademark Office, excluding agency fees.
most start-ups are often broke in half with a penny in their pockets, so when registering a trademark, the choice of category is particularly important. Business owners must think clearly about what their core business is. Don't spend money and apply for a trademark, but in the end you don't apply for registration in your most important category, and you don't know it yet. You just think you have legal protection and sleep well. Isn't it the opposite, which has laid a huge hidden danger for the future use of trademarks.
imagine if someone is also registered in the category of clothing and underwear? Haier? That's really cool under the big tree. Without effort, your own trademark has become a world famous brand. There may be more new people wearing underwear on the street. Or, if someone is in the category of toilet, apply for registration? Master Kong? Then, if you are carrying a steaming bowl of Master Kong on an already lonely night, will you smell a bad smell again?
In order to avoid these embarrassment, Sister Q teaches you a rich and willful method: full class registration. Some people think this is a very extreme practice, but it is not. Like what? Wow, haha? . In addition to all-class protection of their own trademarks, they also put such as? Ha ha wa? 、? Wahawa? Similar trademarks are also protected. Expand the scope of protection, so that their own trademarks can remain unique to the maximum extent! In a word, it is a good way to protect your brand and prevent your trademark from being infringed as much as possible. If the enterprise has a high positioning for its own brand, then it is better to bite the bullet and spend tens of thousands of dollars to make a full-class registration, laying a solid foundation for the development of the enterprise.
Finally, I'd like to share some dry goods with you:
1. Before naming a product, it is recommended to check whether the name has been registered as a trademark by another enterprise. If you find that the good name you spent three days and nights coming up with has been registered, dear, don't worry about it and change it quickly.
2. If you are not sure what kind of trademark your enterprise should apply for, you can find a well-known enterprise with similar business content as a reference to see what kind of trademark others have applied for. In applying for a trademark, it is better to draw a tiger according to a cat than to cross a river according to a pony.
3. trademarks do not accept applications in the name of individuals. Therefore, even if you have the best idea and the trademark, you have to have a company to apply; If you don't have a company, at least you need a business license for individual businesses. This threshold has effectively cracked down on the second-hand dealers in the trademark industry who rob and note trademarks with good ideas and then sell them to others.
4. The approval of a trademark is different from the name of an enterprise. 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, even if it contains the same words, the trademark you apply for may be approved as long as it is obviously different from the existing trademark. That's why. Really miss you? And? Miss you so much? Are approved as registered trademarks.
5. For combined trademarks, such as Chinese, English and graphics, it is recommended to apply separately. Separate applications can be used in combination, but the trademarks applied in combination are not protected when used separately. In addition, because the combined application is also a sub-item review, any conflict or doubt will be rejected as a whole, which invisibly increases the difficulty of the application.
6. It takes several months for a trademark to get a trademark registration certificate smoothly, and the announcement period is three months. If you encounter objections during the announcement period, the time spent on investigation and evidence collection will be out of control, and there are many cases where you can't get a trademark certificate for two or three years. Therefore, for trademark applications, it may not be possible to get ahead of the grain and grass, and start early at the beginning of the company.
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