(1) filing an application for trademark registration as required
Citizens, legal persons or other organizations shall, in accordance with the provisions of China's Trademark Law and its implementing regulations, submit an application for trademark registration and relevant documents to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and pay the fees. This procedure is called "trademark registration application".
Applying for trademark registration is the prerequisite and necessary procedure for obtaining the exclusive right to use a trademark. Therefore, the parties concerned must make the application conform to the provisions of the Trademark Law and the Regulations for the Implementation of the Trademark Law, otherwise the Trademark Office will not accept it. Generally speaking, an application for trademark registration shall meet the following conditions.
1. The applicant for trademark registration is qualified to apply for trademark registration.
At present, there are few restrictions on the qualification of trademark subject in China. According to Articles 4 and 17 of the Trademark Law, the applicant for trademark registration can be a natural person, a legal person or any other organization, and foreigners and foreign enterprises can also become the applicants for trademark registration according to the laws of China or relevant international agreements and treaties.
2. Submit an application for trademark registration in the prescribed way.
Domestic trademark registration applicants can apply for trademark registration in the following two ways: first, trademark registration applicants can entrust trademark agencies to apply for trademark registration; Second, the trademark applicant can also apply for trademark registration directly at the Trademark Office with his ID card, a letter of introduction from the company and a copy of the business license or a copy of the business license signed by the issuing authority.
Foreigners or foreign enterprises must entrust a trademark agency recognized by the state to handle trademark registration applications and other related matters.
3. The application for trademark registration is completed.
To apply for trademark registration, an application for trademark registration and other documents shall be submitted to the Trademark Office. The specific requirements are:
(1) The applicant must submit an application for trademark registration in accordance with the principle of one application for one trademark for one kind of goods. In other words, the goods or services declared by an application can only be limited to one category in the international classification of goods and services registered by trademarks. Where a trademark agency is entrusted to handle the matter on its behalf, a copy of the power of attorney for trademark agency shall also be submitted.
(2) The application for trademark registration shall be filled in neatly, and the name and address of the applicant shall be accurate.
(3) Each application shall be accompanied by 10 color trademark and trademark pattern (specified color), and 10 color pattern and 1 black and white ink draft shall be submitted).
(4) Where a copy of the business license of the enterprise is produced or a copy of the business license signed by the issuing authority is provided, and a registered trademark is applied in the name of a natural person, the corresponding identity documents shall be provided.
(5) The application documents shall be in Chinese, and the foreign language documents shall be accompanied by a Chinese translation.
(6) Where a portrait of a person is used as a trademark to apply for registration, the applicant shall provide a power of attorney from the owner of the portrait, which shall be notarized by a notary office.
(7) Where a foreign applicant claims priority, the country, date and application number of the initial application shall be filled in the application form, and the documents claiming priority shall be submitted to the Trademark Office within three months. If it is not submitted within the time limit, it shall be deemed that priority has not been claimed.
(8) To apply for the registration of a collective trademark or a certification trademark, it is necessary to provide the corresponding articles of association and subject qualification certificate.
4. Pay the trademark registration fee as required.
There is a charge for applying for trademark registration. At present, the charging standard is 65,438+0,000 yuan for each trademark registration application when the following 65,438+00 commodities are specified. After more than 10 species, the excess will be charged 1 0,000 yuan. If the fee is not paid, the Trademark Office will not accept its application.
If the application for trademark registration meets the above requirements after examination by the Trademark Office, that is, the application procedures are complete and the application documents are filled in as required, the application number will be compiled and a notice of acceptance will be issued. The date of application of the applicant shall be the date when the Trademark Office receives the application documents. As China implements the principle of applying first, the date of application for trademark registration is particularly important for applicants.
(2) Choose a trademark that can be registered.
At present, the Trademark Office receives more than 200,000 applications for trademark registration every year, but not all of them are approved for registration, and about 10% of them are rejected because the trademark does not meet the registration requirements. Therefore, if the applicant wants to improve the success rate of registration, it is necessary to know as much as possible the requirements of the law for registered trademarks and make necessary search queries before applying.
1. The trademark applied for registration shall be distinctive, and prohibited words and graphics shall not be used.
Article 9 of the Trademark Law stipulates that "a trademark applying for registration shall have distinctive features and be easy to identify". The requirement that a trademark must have distinctive features is determined by its identification function. When a trademark is used in the market, consumers should clearly know that it is a trademark, not a decoration or explanation. Therefore, trademarks must have distinctive features and be easy to identify.
Except for distinctiveness, according to Articles 10 and 11 of the Trademark Law, a trademark may not use the following words and figures:
(1) It is forbidden to use the same or similar trademarks as the national name, national flag, national emblem, military flag and medal of People's Republic of China (PRC).
(2) It is forbidden to use trademarks that are identical with or similar to foreign names, national flags, national emblems and military flags. Except those agreed by the government.
(3) identical with or similar to the name, flag or emblem of an intergovernmental international organization. Except with the consent of the organization or not easy to mislead the public.
(4) identical with or similar to the official mark or inspection mark indicating the implementation of control and guarantee. Except those authorized.
(5) identical with or similar to the symbols and names of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
(6) the common name and figure of the commodity.
The generic name of this commodity refers to the name of a certain kind of commodity commonly used in a certain range. It is forbidden to use the common name and figure of a commodity as the trademark of the commodity, on the one hand, because it cannot distinguish different operators and is not significant; On the other hand, it is to prevent generic names and graphics from being monopolized unfairly.
However, this name or figure can be approved if it is combined with prominent signs to apply for registration.
(seven) directly indicating the quality, main raw materials, functions, uses, weight, quantity and other characteristics of the goods.
Words or graphics that directly indicate the quality, main raw materials, functions, uses, weight and quantity of goods or services are descriptive words or graphics commonly used by operators in their goods or services, which belong to the category of * * * *, and exclusive monopoly should be prohibited. If the words or graphics of a trademark indirectly describe or only imply the quality of the goods or services it uses, or other parts of the trademark are significant, it can be registered.
(8) ethnic discrimination.
(9) exaggerating propaganda is deceptive.
The words, graphics or their combination of trademarks exaggerate and publicize the quality, main raw materials, functions, uses, weight and quantity of the goods and services used by them, which are deceptive and are prohibited from being used as trademarks. But those who exaggerate but are not deceptive are not subject to this restriction.
(10) is harmful to socialist morality or has other adverse effects.
Any behavior that violates social public interests and public order and socialist morality is prohibited by this clause.
(1 1) The geographical names of administrative divisions at or above the county level or foreign geographical names known to the public shall not be used as trademarks, except that the geographical names have other meaning or are part of collective trademarks or certification trademarks.
Geographical name trademarks are easily regarded as indicating that goods and services come from a certain place, lacking the function of distinguishing different operators and not suitable for monopoly. Therefore, it is one of the international practices to prohibit the use of place names as trademarks.
In addition to the above, the Trademark Law also requires that the trademark applied for registration shall not infringe upon other people's prior rights such as copyright and patent right of design, and shall not copy or imitate other people's well-known trademarks.
2. Before submitting an application for trademark registration, the prior right shall be searched.
Article 17 of the Trademark Law requires, in addition to the requirements of distinctiveness and prohibition clauses, that the trademark applied for registration shall not be the same as or similar to the trademark registered or preliminarily approved by others on the same or similar goods, otherwise the Trademark Office will reject the application. This is what we say: the trademark applied for registration shall not conflict with the prior trademark right. Whether it constitutes a conflict depends on whether the trademark applied for registration and the goods designated for use by the trademark with prior rights belong to the same or similar goods, and whether the two trademarks are the same or similar can be judged from the overall structure, pronunciation and meaning of the trademarks.
The same trademark refers to a trademark whose characters, graphics or their combinations are visually indistinguishable or slightly different.
A similar trademark refers to a trademark whose pronunciation, meaning or overall structure are different, but it is difficult for people to distinguish it and it is easy for consumers to misunderstand it.
Whether it is the same commodity or not is judged according to the same degree of function, use, performance and raw materials of the commodity. Generally speaking, if the names are the same or different, the goods referred to are naturally the same kind of goods. Commodities with different raw materials and appearances, but essentially the same for sales purposes, are also regarded as similar commodities.
Two or more commodities are similar in functions, uses, raw materials used and sales places. If the same or similar trademarks are used, it will easily lead to misunderstanding and purchase by consumers, and make consumers mistakenly think that the goods produced by the same enterprise belong to the same kind of goods. It should be noted that the similarity of goods is constantly changing. With the continuous updating of products and the constant changes of commodity uses and sales channels, it is possible to judge that it is a similar commodity rather than a similar commodity.
In order to prevent the application for trademark registration from being rejected because of the conflict with the prior trademark right, the applicant had better search the prior trademark right before submitting the application. At present, all trademark agencies represent this business, and applicants can also directly go to the Trademark Office for retrieval. After searching, no prior rights are found, and the applicant can safely submit an application for trademark registration.