Trademark is a symbol to distinguish products or services provided by different enterprises, and it is the face of enterprises. Of course, there are many factors for the success of an enterprise, but the role of a trademark agent is indispensable in choosing a trademark from the perspective of trademark strategy and tactics. The production of a trademark must first have a good idea, which is expressed in the form of graphics, characters, symbols or their combination, which often requires people with various professional knowledge to brainstorm. For example, in order to choose a satisfactory trademark, American Mobil Oil Company set up a research group composed of aestheticians, economists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, commodity experts, trademark lawyers and other experts. , and studied the languages and customs of many countries in the world, as well as the registrability of various candidate trademarks in various countries around the world. It took six years, cost 65.438+0.22 billion dollars, and finally increased from 654.38+. It can be seen that a creative and distinctive trademark is equal to a huge wealth, and the formation of this huge wealth can not be separated from the hard work of the trademark agent.
When many trademark design schemes are collected, trademark agents have to do a series of screening work. The first step is to exclude the design scheme prohibited by the trademark law and the design scheme that is too simple and inconspicuous. The second step is to retrieve the registered or registered trademarks and preliminarily determine the registrability of each design scheme. This search should be carried out not only in the category of the trademark or service item to be used, but also in the category of other goods or services that have been protected; Not only domestic needs, but also foreign needs. After careful search, the trademark agent should also write a search report according to the search data, and put forward analysis opinions on the registrability of each trademark design for the enterprise to make decisions. Imagine, without the participation of trademark agents, no matter how many experts the enterprise invites, how much time and money it spends, and if its final trademark lacks registrability, the works produced by these huge investments, no matter how high their artistic value, can be said to be worthless as trademarks.
Trademark agents are experts who assist enterprises to obtain trademark ownership.
In the process of assisting enterprises to obtain the ownership of commercial documents, trademark agents need to use a lot of specialized and skilled knowledge and experience in order to live up to the entrustment of the parties. After some trademark registration applications are submitted to the Trademark Office, they have to go through correction procedures, examination opinions procedures, rejection review procedures or objection procedures, dispute procedures, improper registration procedures and so on. Just like Guan Yunchang went through five hurdles and killed six generals. What's more, the process of obtaining personal trademark ownership is complicated and tortuous, just like the Monkey King's protection of Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures went through 81 difficulties. Trademark agents have to try their best. According to the statistics of the Trademark Office, in 1999, 124786 new applications for trademark registration (excluding Madrid international registration) were sent back for correction, and the rejection rate was 16.6 1%, and the rejection rate of some agencies was as high as 50%. Of course, this does not rule out that the new trademark agents are unskilled or some trademark agents are negligent, but a considerable part of it is because the agents have taken a clever measure to let the client get the application date as soon as possible in accordance with the principle of first application stipulated in the Trademark Law.
Even the case of successfully obtaining trademark ownership embodies the painstaking efforts and wisdom of trademark agents. For example, if a foreign enterprise wants to apply for a registered trademark in China, and the documents are placed on the desk of the trademark agent, the trademark agent must first confirm whether the application is still within the priority period; To review whether the documents are complete; Whether the trademark meets the requirements of China's Trademark Law and whether a part of the trademark pattern should be abandoned; We should also consider how to fill in the service items of goods in order to protect the rights and interests of clients to the maximum extent; In addition, many trivial details can not be ignored. For example, whether the trademark design specifications meet the requirements, whether the trademark graphics and words are clear, and so on.
A trademark agent is an enterprise's trademark management consultant and an expert in solving trademark disputes.
In China, it is very common for an enterprise to own hundreds of registered trademarks, and it is not uncommon for an enterprise to own thousands of trademarks abroad. How to manage these registered trademarks in an orderly manner and how to prevent trademark dilution in trademark use and advertising; How to sign a trademark license contract; Which trademarks need to be renewed or changed and when; Check the trademark announcement regularly and find out in time that others are applying for the registration of the same and similar trademarks as our company, so as to raise objections, disputes or improper registration applications in time according to different situations; How to establish a monitoring network to detect trademark infringement or counterfeiting of others in time; What kind of remedies are used to solve trademark disputes with others, and so on. All these require trademark agents to make suggestions for enterprises, and to negotiate with each other or complain to relevant authorities on behalf of enterprises.
Take trademark infringement cases as an example. At present, some enterprises invite civil servants from the local administrative department for industry and commerce to go to other places to assist in trademark infringement, and some enterprises set up anti-counterfeiting institutions and send their own employees to fight against counterfeiting. As far as the latter mode is concerned, I think it is correct for enterprises to set up special anti-counterfeiting institutions, but if we go further and send our own employees to fight against counterfeiting, it is worth rethinking. Confucius said, "Too much is too late." . It is not only expensive for enterprises to train a full-time anti-counterfeiting team every year, but also because of the uncertainty of the case occurrence time, it will inevitably lead to the waste of labor, thus increasing the burden on enterprises. On the one hand, it is more professional to entrust a trademark agent to crack down on counterfeiting, on the other hand, you can come as soon as you come, fight as soon as you come, and return after you finish, which fully embodies the principle of saving as soon as possible. Entrepreneurs should carefully calculate this account. According to statistics, in recent years, about 80% of trademark registration applications are represented by trademark agencies every year.
This year is the turn of the new century. China's Measures for the Administration of Trademark Agency has been implemented, and the revision of the Trademark Law is also accelerating. With the approach of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, China has made greater strides in reform and opening up. In this case, foreign investors should first consider their intellectual property protection in China when entering the China market. Enterprises in China need international protection of trademarks and other intellectual property rights when they go abroad. Therefore, we have reason to believe that a new era of trademark business has arrived, and trademark agents will certainly play a greater role in helping enterprises build gold-lettered signboards.