Factors for rejection of international trademark registration and re-application processing methods
Trademark registration is a technical job. A good company cannot do without a good trademark, but many problems are often encountered during the registration process. In trademark registration cases, the main reasons why domestic trademark registration and international trademark registration were unsuccessful are ascertained as follows.
Factors leading to rejection of international trademark registration
Blind spots in trademark search
Currently, there is a blind spot in trademark search. Only trademark registration data from 5 months ago can be found. The registered trademark submitted may be submitted to the Trademark Office for trademark registration by others within these five months.
Trademark objections
After the trademark passes the preliminary examination of the Trademark Office, it still needs to be announced for three months. During this period, if anyone feels that the trademark is identical or similar to someone else’s trademark, he or she will receive an objection letter from the Trademark Office and must respond within 30 days from the date of receipt of a copy of the objection letter. If sufficient evidence can be provided, the Trademark Office will issue a trademark registration certificate; otherwise, the trademark application will be rejected.
Results in trademark squatting
According to the provisions of my country’s Trademark Law, trademark registration adopts the first-to-file principle. The Trademark Office accepts trademark registration applications filed first and approves trademark registration applications filed later. However, if the registered trademark belongs to a well-known trademark, a well-known trademark, a world brand, etc., the situation may be different.
Personal factors of trademark examiners
After a trademark applicant submits a trademark application to the Trademark Office, the examiners of the Trademark Office will make a basic judgment on the trademark situation. However, the examiners’ knowledge structure and background are not uniform, and the examiners’ subjective analysis and judgment abilities are also different. , so the review results will vary.
In addition, reasons for rejection of international trademark registrations include lack of distinctiveness, being too similar to existing trademarks, violating public order or moral principles, etc. There are also technical issues such as incomplete or incorrect application documents, too general or too specific trademark descriptions, translation or transcription errors, etc. that may also lead to rejection.
How to handle the re-application after international trademark registration has been rejected?
As Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers’ trademark awareness gradually increases, more and more sellers advocate registering international trademarks. However, you may encounter unexpected rejections during the registration process. Is it allowed to apply again after international trademark registration is rejected? What matters need to be paid attention to? In order to help Chinese sellers successfully complete overseas work and trademark work, this article will focus on this process.
How to define the rejection of WIPO’s international trademark?
How do sellers determine that their international trademark applications have been rejected? As we all know, WIPO is the internationally recognized Madrid Agreement organization, which is specifically used to deal with international trademarks. If cross-border e-commerce sellers use the channel of WIPO to upload the qualification certificate for international trademark application to the countries that need group testing, sellers will find that after each country gets the application certificate, it will start to review the system and standards review process. There are two situations of rejection. One is temporary rejection, which means that the international trademark has been rejected in a certain region and sellers can reapply. The other is a provisional rejection by WIPO, which may involve certain categories of projects.
How to handle the re-application after international trademark registration has been rejected?
In the vast majority of cases, cross-border e-commerce sellers need local lawyers to represent themselves at the local trademark office, which means that cross-border e-commerce sellers will need to contact local lawyers and compare prices with multiple agents. The lawyer responds on his behalf and is allowed to obtain the materials that need to be prepared and certified. The price of the lawyer’s representation will depend on the country handling the case and the lawyer’s actual quotation.
If it is all temporary situations of trademark rejection by the Madrid Organization: This means that the international trademark application of this cross-border e-commerce seller has been rejected in the country/region that sent the fixed notification, and it is simply irreversible.
In short, the above is a detailed introduction to the factors that reject international trademark registration and the re-application processing methods. If a cross-border e-commerce seller finds that his trademark application has been rejected, don’t worry. It is better to check the reasons for rejection first, so as to define which rejection situation the trademark belongs to, and then based on “temporary rejection” and “total rejection” Treat them separately.