A trademark is a commercial sign used to distinguish the different sources of goods and services. It is composed of words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs, color combinations, sounds or the combination of the above elements. It is an important component and carrier of a brand and plays an important role in distinguishing the sources of goods or services. According to the official data of the Trademark Office, in 2018, the number of trademark registration applications in China was 7.371 million, and the number of trademark registrations was 5.07 million; By the end of 2018, the number of valid trademarks registered in China (excluding foreign registrations in China and Madrid) reached 18.049 million, and the number of trademarks owned by every 10,000 market entities reached 1,724. In addition, according to the official data of the Supreme People's Court, there were 16,937 trademark disputes in China in 2018, and trademark disputes ranked first in the number of intellectual property cases, accounting for 45.5% of all intellectual property cases. This shows that, on the one hand, trademark is becoming more and more important in business; On the other hand, trademark disputes show a frequent and rising trend. Recently, a series of well-known trademark disputes such as Muji, Daoxiang Village, and Jiangxiaobai have once again attracted everyone's attention. Every trademark dispute will bring great business risks to the operators, the light will cause economic losses, the serious will even lead to the hard to cultivate the market to go to waste. How to minimize the trademark risk in the operation, the trademark rights and interests to the best, is the problem that every operator has to pay attention to. Jiao Hanwei, lawyer of Shanghai Guohillhouse Law Firm, will discuss trademark protection from two perspectives of law and cosmetics business for reference.

Register as soon as possible.

China's trademark law stipulates that the trademarks approved and registered by the Trademark Office are registered trademarks, including goods trademarks, service trademarks and collective trademarks, certification trademarks; The trademark registrant shall enjoy the exclusive right to use the trademark and shall be protected by law. Before the amendment of the Trademark Law in 2001, a strict registration system was applied, that is, only the successful registration in the trademark office could obtain the exclusive right of the trademark. After the amendment of the Trademark Law, our country has shifted to registration as the main, taking into account the principle of "use first". Although the above amendments have to some extent conditionally stopped the rampant malicious squatting phenomenon, not all trademarks can enjoy this treatment. Because unregistered trademark users need to spend a lot of energy to prove the "use first" and the trademark has a certain degree of fame and other requirements, and need to be recognized by the court. In short, the first time to trademark registration is the legal way to obtain trademark exclusive right, but also the lowest cost, the best way; Only when a trademark is successfully registered can it enjoy the exclusive right and other trademark rights according to law. The successful registration of the trademark means that the operator enjoys the exclusive right to a certain commercial logo, and then can legally monopolize the use of a specific commercial logo, and prohibit others from using the trademark without permission. In this way, the enterprise may only enjoy the traffic brought by the trademark, and only enjoy the commercial value of the precipitation after brand promotion. The first time to register a trademark is the first and most important step in trademark management.

Reasonably determine the scope of registration.

China's Trademark Law stipulates that the exclusive right to use a registered trademark is limited to the trademark that has been approved for registration and the goods that have been approved for use. This means that China's trademark classification registration, classification protection. The scope of registration of the trademark is the specific boundary of the rights of the registered trademark. Therefore, while giving priority to trademark registration, operators should reasonably determine the scope of trademark registration. How to determine the reasonable range of trademark registration? In order to meet the needs of trademark retrieval, registration, examination and management, China has combined some commodities with common attributes into a class, and divided all goods and services into 45 categories, forming the "classification of goods and services for trademark registration". Each type of goods and services is divided into different groups according to specific standards, and the next level of the group is the specific goods and services, which currently contains more than 10,000 specific goods and services. This means that the applicant should reasonably determine the scope of the three concepts of class, group and item when registering a trademark, so as to truly and effectively achieve the purpose of trademark protection. As far as the industry is concerned, when determining the scope of trademark registration, on the one hand, operators should consider their own business planning, and the categories and projects of the industry involved in their own business must be registered; On the other hand, although the operators themselves will not involve, but do not want other operators to register categories and projects. For example, as far as cosmetics operators are concerned, the 0306 group involving cosmetics under the third category of goods is to be registered, but the 0309 group of animal cosmetics is not involved in it. Outside the industry, when determining the scope of trademark registration, on the one hand, we should consider the category of goods involved in the current business to meet the needs of business; On the other hand, it is also necessary to consider the categories of goods that are highly relevant and malleable to the industry in which they are engaged, so as not to be registered by others. For example, the cosmetics industry belongs to the big fashion industry in terms of scope, in addition to the third category of cosmetics to be registered, the eighth category of cosmetics, the 16th category of household paper, the 18th category of luggage, the 15th category of clothing, the 44th category of beauty services and other large fashion industry industry relevance and business malleability is very strong, these categories of goods should also be registered in the first time. Avoid being registered by others, and avoid the obstruction of later business expansion. In addition, as far as the scope of registration is concerned, large-scale enterprises can also consider full registration, because on the one hand, the cost of full registration is not high, on the other hand, the judgment of business extension in different stages of development of enterprises is constantly changing, and it is also necessary for large-scale enterprises to comprehensively prevent trademark risks under the premise of controllable costs. It should be emphasized here that trademark registration strategy is a very professional work, and in practice, many enterprises in the start-up period are mostly registered by themselves or through non-professional trademark agencies, there is no strategy at all, such trademark registration is metaphysical. Only by employing professional lawyers through scientific analysis, formulating reasonable trademark registration strategies, and weaving a tight protective net can we effectively protect trademark rights and interests with minimal cost in advance.

Attach importance to post-registration management.

Applying for trademark registration within a reasonable range is the most critical step in trademark administration, but it does not represent the end of trademark administration. After trademark registration, there are still a lot of trademark management work to do. For example, in the use of trademarks to standardize the use of trademarks, not unauthorized change of trademarks to avoid being revoked; The term of validity of a registered trademark shall be ten years, counted from the date of approval of the registration, and shall be renewed in time after the expiration of the trademark; After trademark registration, it is necessary to monitor the trademark registration of others, and timely raise objections to the same or similar trademark registration applications filed in the same or similar categories of goods, so as to avoid trademark confusion caused by third parties registering the same or similar trademarks on the same or similar goods; When there are copycat products, fake goods and other infringement of trademark rights in the market, the first time to protect the brand image through legal means to protect the interests of operators. If the above management work is not in place, it will cause great losses to the operators. Even many enterprises ignore or ignore the management work after registration, which has brought disastrous consequences to business operations. The embarrassing status quo of classic cars, bag rats, Crocodiles, Valentino, PLAYBOY, Captain and other brands flying into the world is largely caused by brand mismanagement. Operators must pay attention to the brand management after trademark registration, otherwise once the brand falls, the consequences are unimaginable.

Trademark management should be systematic. In the process of operation, on the one hand, operators should reasonably register relevant trademarks in the first time, and do a good job of brand protection in the future. On the other hand, they should carry out systematic management after trademark registration to maintain brand image and trademark use order. Only if the operator does the above trademark management work systematically, can the specific trademark logo be exclusively used continuously and the brand value of commercial promotion be exclusively enjoyed.

Jiao Hanwei

Chief partner and lawyer of Shanghai Guohillhouse Law Firm

More than 10 years of legal service experience and more than five years of business experience, familiar with law, familiar with business, He is good at providing enterprises with legal counsel, brand management, business compliance, business negotiation, intellectual property management, tax planning, equity transfer, corporate structure design, equity incentive, investment and financing, restructuring and merger, dispute resolution and other solutions for the whole stage of enterprise development from the perspective of law and business operation.