Compliance is one, performance is zero. Brand is a kind of comprehensive perception formed by consumers in the face of comprehensive components of services or products. Brand is not only the identification factor of products or services, but also the important intangible assets of operators. It has been said that even if a torch burns the Coca-Cola Company without any money left, the company can rebuild the factory and invest in new development in a few months with only the well-known trademark "Coca-Cola". Brand is a key element of business development, especially in the consumer goods industry. Consumer goods industry is different from the technology industry, also different from the Internet industry, the importance of the brand is more important, the brand itself is the traffic. Improper brand management will cause a major disaster to the business, Wang Laoji, Jordan, Hyundai Motor, Didi Taxi, Muji, Jiang Xiaobai and other brand events once again sounded the alarm to China's operators, operators should pay attention to brand management, to prevent the risk of brand violations. This paper will discuss the cognition and protection of the illegal behavior of enterprise brand from the perspective of the operator, for the reference of the operator.

Brand recognition

Brand refers to a comprehensive perception formed by consumers in the face of comprehensive components of services or products, which belongs to business terms. As far as the elements of the brand are concerned, trademarks, trade names, product names, product series names, unique ICONS, unique bottle shapes of products, unique flower boxes of products, unique packaging and decoration, goodwill, design schemes, design drawings, etc., are important elements and carriers of the brand. As far as brand awareness is concerned, the operator should pay attention to the brand is not equal to the trademark. In business practice, many people mix or generalize the two terms brand and trademark, and even mistakenly think that brand is trademark, which is obviously a cognitive misunderstanding. A trademark is a specific mark used to distinguish goods and services, and consumers can identify the producers, operators and service providers of the goods through this mark. The trademark is an important part of the brand, but it is not equal to the brand. In addition to trademarks, trade names, product names, product series names, unique ICONS, unique bottle shapes, unique flower boxes, unique packaging tones, goodwill, and design schemes are all important components of cosmetics brands. Brands include trademarks, but are not the same as trademarks. Therefore, to establish the correct brand awareness, brand management is the comprehensive management of a series of brand components of the enterprise, including but not limited to trademarks, trade names, product names, product series names, unique ICONS, product originality bottle shape, product originality flower box, product unique color, domain name, goodwill, design scheme and so on.

According to public information, the unique body, roof, Windows, side panels and rear lights of the Range Rover Evoque model have become the unique decoration of the model, and have become an important identifying factor of the Range Rover Evoque model. The Land Wind X7, produced by China's Jiangling Motors, directly copied the unique interior design of the Range Rover Evoque, causing confusion among consumers. After nearly three years of litigation, the Beijing Chaoyang District Court ruled that the Land Wind X7 produced by China Jiangling Automobile constituted unfair competition, and ordered Jiangling Automobile to immediately stop unfair competition, stop production and sale of the cash Land Wind X7, and compensate Land Rover for the corresponding losses. Innovation can be copied, but not copied. Brand elements such as trademarks, well-known commodity packaging and decoration, enterprise names, and well-known product names are important intellectual property rights of operators and are protected by law. In product innovation, operators should clearly recognize the boundaries of others' brands, so as not to cross the line and cause unnecessary legal disputes.

Brand illegal behavior identification

Brand violation refers to the violation of legal or agreed obligations by the brand elements of the operator. In business practice, any careless operator will lead to unnecessary brand illegal risks, affect the economic interests of enterprises, corporate goodwill, capital operation, etc., and even lead to economic losses or deep imprisonment. Operators should identify brand illegal behaviors and prevent brand illegal risks. Brand illegal behavior is a broad concept, the more prominent brand illegal behavior at this stage is as follows:

1. Trademark violation. Trademarks are commercial signs used to distinguish different sources of goods and services. They are usually composed of words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs, color combinations, sounds or the combination of the above elements. They are important components and carriers of brands and play an important role in distinguishing the sources of goods or services. Trademarks approved and registered by the Trademark Office shall be registered trademarks, including commodity marks, service marks, collective marks and certification marks; The trademark registrant shall enjoy the exclusive right to use the trademark and shall be protected by law. The illegal act of trademark refers to the operator's use of trademark infringes on the exclusive right of others, or infringes other civil rights of others. If the operator uses a trademark identical or similar to the registered trademark on the same or similar products, and there is no legal defense, it is an infringement of the exclusive right to use the trademark. If the operator carries out the illegal act of trademark, it needs to bear civil and administrative responsibility, and criminal responsibility. In the face of trademark violations, operators should correct their actions as soon as possible to avoid legal disputes and losses. At this stage, product trademark violation is the biggest brand violation risk faced by operators, operators should pay attention to identification.

2. The appearance of the product is illegal. Product appearance design refers to the shape, pattern or combination of the product, as well as the combination of color and shape, pattern made aesthetic and suitable for industrial application of the new design. Product design is an important identification of the source of goods, is one of the most important components of the brand, and is an important intellectual property of the operator. The original product design can not only attract the attention of consumers, but also bring consumers the impulse to consume, and then better realize the business value, such as Land Rover, Apple mobile phone and other products. With the development of economy, the importance of commodity appearance design in commercial operation is becoming increasingly prominent and more and more important. After the application for and approval of a patent for design, the applicant shall enjoy the patent for design, be protected by law and enjoy the exclusive right. After the patent right for a design has been granted, no entity or individual may, without the permission of the patentee, exploit the patent, that is, make, offer to sell, sell or import the product patented for its design for production or business purposes. Good product appearance can be borrowed, but not copied. At present, in the intellectual property disputes, the design patent infringement disputes caused by product counterfeiting show an increasing trend, and operators should pay attention to them.

3. Illegal business name. The enterprise name is an essential factor for market operators and an important symbol to distinguish different market entities. The name of an enterprise is usually composed of administrative divisions, brand name, industry or business characteristics, and organizational form, among which the main distinguishing mark is "brand name", which is usually called "trade name". For example, Millet Technology Co., LTD., of which "Millet" is its trade name. The company name directly reflects the information of the manufacturer of the product, and conveys the reputation of the manufacturer to the counterparty or consumers, which is of great commercial significance. The relationship between trade name and trademark is very close, most of the cases appear on the same commodity, are the core components of the brand, but there is a big difference between the two, the trademark exclusive right enjoyed by the enterprise to trademark belongs to the scope of intellectual property rights, the name right enjoyed by the enterprise belongs to the scope of personality rights. Because of this, in business practice, trademarks with certain visibility of operators are often registered as business names by others, or business names with certain visibility are applied for registration as trademarks by others, which is called the conflict between trade names and trademarks. Among them, the act of registering another's trademark as an enterprise name does not belong to the act of trademark use and does not constitute trademark infringement. However, this act causes consumers to mistake the two as having a specific relationship, and then causes market confusion. In essence, it is the act of market confusion in the process of business operation, and belongs to the category of unfair competition in nature. The act of registering a well-known trade name as a trademark belongs to the infringement of the right of enterprise name and belongs to the category of infringement. The operator should carry out the corresponding assessment when determining the enterprise name, so as to avoid infringement.

4. Copyright violation. Copyright, also known as copyright, refers to the exclusive rights that copyright owners lawfully enjoy over literary, artistic and scientific works, such as fine art, photography, product designs, computer software, etc. Works of Chinese citizens, legal persons or other organizations, whether published or not, shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law. The copyright in works of foreigners and stateless persons shall be enjoyed in accordance with the agreement concluded between China and the country to which the author belongs or has his habitual residence or the international treaty to which both countries are parties. Copyright, as a civil right, is an important part of intellectual property, which has the commonality of non-materiality, exclusivity, timeliness and regionality of the object. Copyright is protected by law and shall not be used commercially without permission. In current business practice, prominent copyright violations include: (1) operators use others' copyrighted photographic works without permission, such as pictures; (2) The operator uses the fonts that are copyrighted by others without the permission of the licensor; (3) Operators without permission to use other people's copyrighted computer software, such as Adobe. In business practice, operators should use legally authorized pictures, fonts, computer software and other works to prevent copyright violation risks.

Brand violations protection

Brand is the cornerstone of management and one of the most valuable assets of the operator. The brand not only has the function of identification, but also contributes to the conclusion of the transaction to a large extent. In the current operating environment, the brand risk and the operator go hand in hand, the operator must keep their own brand. As far as brand protection is concerned, operators should do the following:

1. Trademark registration in the first time. Trademark is the most important component of brand, so it plays the most important role in brand protection. Consumers usually first identify the producers, operators and service providers of the goods through trademarks. The key to trademark protection is to register the trademark in the first time, and then obtain the exclusive right to use the trademark. If the operator successfully registers the trademark, it 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 logo. 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 trademark registration of the core commodity category is the priority and the most important work for brand protection. 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. Each registered trademark has a specific right boundary. After the registration of the core class trademark, the trademark should be registered in a timely manner on the relevant product class or service. Operators should consider their own business planning, they have or may be involved in the category and project must be registered; On the other hand, categories and items that are not involved in the operator's own business but do not want other operators to use should also be registered. The trademark registration procedure is simple, but the trademark registration strategy is a very professional work, and in practice, many companies mostly register through trademark agencies with low professionalism, and there is no strategy at all. For example, some cosmetics companies only register 0306 cosmetics on the third type of daily chemical products. And did not register 0301 group soap, 0302 group shampoo, 0305 group spices, 0307 toothpaste, 0309 group animal cosmetics and other products, when others related products listed only found the problem, obviously is a major trademark risk. Only scientific analysis, formulation of reasonable trademark registration strategy, weaving a tight protective net, can effectively avoid others free ride to gain benefits. Registration and reasonable registration are two different concepts, operators should pay special attention to this, should entrust professional lawyers and other professionals to implement trademark registration matters, rather than one-sided pursuit of cheap registration. This is the most common mistake that operators make in trademark protection.

2. Attach importance to product design protection. Product design is an important identification of the source of goods, is one of the most important components of the brand, and is an important intellectual property of the operator. With the development of economy, the importance of commodity appearance design in commercial operation is becoming increasingly prominent and more and more important. At this stage, the plagiarism of well-known product design is very popular, and it is also the most troublesome problem for many operators. The original products have not yet been listed, and copycat goods have blossomed everywhere, greatly affecting the product listing. Therefore, while completing trademark registration, we should actively protect the product design. After the product design is completed, the operator should register the design patent at the first time, or register the copyright of the corresponding work to avoid being counterfeited. Operators should pay special attention to is: product design patent application before the appearance of the product shall not be published, once the publication of the side causes the loss of novelty of the work, the patent is invalid.

3. Use corporate names with caution. Among the elements of brand, trade name is another important commercial logo. Trade name is the core component of the name of the operator, and the recognition is of great significance. The registration of enterprises in our country is a hierarchical registration system, and specific administrative regions independently approve the registration, so there will be the same situation in different administrative regions. On the one hand, it will reduce the market share of the operator, on the other hand, it will be mistaken for a specific relationship between the two. In today's rapidly spreading network, once the negative events of counterfeit products occur, it will bring great risks to the goodwill of the operator. Therefore, operators should be careful to use trade names, especially not to use the same or similar trade names as others' registered trademarks, so as to avoid infringement or unfair competition. At the same time, business operators should also pay attention to the protection of business names. In business practice, trademark registration is an effective means of protection, which can solve the problem of regional protection of trade name in the scope of company law to a certain extent.

4. Comprehensive protection of other brand elements. On the basis of the protection of trademarks, product designs and trade names, business operators should fully protect other elements of the brand, such as product design drawings, computer programs, photographic works, etc. As mentioned above, in addition to the trademark, design and trade name, product name, product series name, unique ICON, product originality bottle shape, product originality flower box, product unique color, domain name, goodwill and other elements have the function of distinguishing the product. If there is no protection for the first time, there is also the risk of being counterfeited or copied by others, and the phenomenon of enterprise "crash" will inevitably occur in specific circumstances, causing consumer confusion. For example, Lancome's "little black bottle" is a unique name for well-known products, and if the protection is not in place and abused by competitors, it will lead to product confusion. For example, the unique design works of the product should be registered as soon as possible, otherwise they may be copied by others. The photographic works produced by the operator shall be registered for copyright. Although the copyright of the corresponding work is acquired naturally at the completion of the creation, copyright registration is not a necessary condition for obtaining copyright, but the copyright registration certificate is the preliminary evidence to prove the enjoyment of copyright. If copyright registration is not carried out, it may face certain challenges when proving rights in the later stage, so important works such as product design drawings and computer software are recommended to register copyright in time.

5. Crack down on copycat and counterfeit products. At present, China's market healthy competition order has not really formed, on the one hand, there is a scene of a hundred flowers blooming, new brands, new channels, new concepts emerge in an endless stream; On the other hand, the operators are mixed, full of imitation, counterfeit and other vicious competition phenomenon. Operators should pay attention to the copycat products appearing in the market, and pay attention to the criminal crackdown on fake products. Operators should be forward-looking to do a good job of brand protection, the first time in the copycat products or fakes appear, to maintain the brand market order, in order to better achieve their own business purposes. Otherwise, operators may face the dilemma that although they legally hold the corresponding brand rights, they fall into the business of driving out good money in the market.