“How long does it take to apply for registration of international trademarks?”
“How do you calculate the cost of international trademark registration?”
“What files are required to submit an application for registration of an international trademark?”
“For international trademarks, how can I retrieve the specific content of relevant trademarks?”
……
Yesterday, at the Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center on the second floor of Yiwu International Trade Service Center, a number of business owners and market operators were consulting on matters related to Madrid’s trademark registration application.
In order to meet the needs of domestic enterprises and individuals for international trademark registration, the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office issued an announcement agreeing that the service center’s trademark acceptance window should handle the Madrid international trademark registration application service, adding 23 new services on the basis of the original trademark registration application service, including trademark alteration, transfer, renewal, license filing, etc. On November 21st, the Liaison Department of Madrid Trademark International Registration in Yiwu was unveiled.
At present, through the Madrid Trademark Registration and Acceptance Window, 500 thousand market participants can easily apply for registration of international trademarks in Yiwu.
Registration of International Trademarks has become the “rigid demand” of export-oriented enterprises
“The company’s overseas market has developed well in recent years, and the registration of international trademarks is a ‘rigid demand’.” Wang Xiao, the owner of electric mosquito rackets in Yiwu market, started expanding his business to India, Chile, the Philippines, Brazil and other emerging markets seven years ago, selling various electric mosquito rackets. Due to its competitive price advantage, the sales volume of several electric mosquito swatches exceeded the expectation. Considering that the technology of the electric mosquito racket is not so difficult, it is easy to be counterfeited by others, which causes hidden danger of counterfeit and inferior products impacting the genuine products. In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the company, he entrusted a trademark office to apply for international trademarks one by one in the above-mentioned countries.
At present, Yiwu’s small commodities are exported to more than 200 countries and regions in the world, and the market extroversion reaches more than 65%. In Yiwu, it is common for operators and entrepreneurs like Wang Xiao who need to register international trademarks because of business expansion.
Some insiders said that in recent years, with the increasing awareness of intellectual property rights of Yiwu businessmen, the registration of international trademarks has gradually become a consensus. Having international trademarks have gradually become the “standard matching” among Yiwu foreign trade enterprises. Moreover, some cross-border e-commerce also began to keep up with the trend.
Chen Yan, a cross-border e-commerce operator in Yiwu, specializes in online sales of various sports equipment. In recent years, as people pay more and more attention to fitness and outdoor activities, her online business is also getting better and better. After the company’s gradual expansion, she started cooperation with partners in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, and with the help of local people, she has successfully registered a number of international trademarks.
“Now the company has decided to continue its expansion on sales outlets and wants to open up markets in Thailand and parts of South America.” The day before yesterday, Chen Yan, who consulted things about trademark registration in Madrid in the Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center in Yiwu City, said that with the development of her business, the company intends to apply for some international trademarks in advance in the target market to avoid potential risks in intellectual property.
“Yiwu entrepreneurs and operators are more and more aware of the protection of trademark rights, and the market demand for international trademark registration is growing.” Xu Jie, a senior trademark defender in Yiwu and head of Xujie Trademark Office, said that with international trademarks, enterprises can save a lot of trouble in expanding their overseas business.
Now in Yiwu, you can simply apply for the same trademark in more than 100 countries at the same time.
The Madrid Trademark Registration consulted by Chen Yan is actually a trademark registration among the members of the Madrid Union in accordance with the Madrid Agreement on International Registration of Trademarks or the relevant Protocols to the Madrid Agreement on International Registration of Trademarks. The various international trademarks acquired in this way are also known as Madrid trademarks.
As of December last year, the Madrid League had 102 members. In theory, an applicant can apply for the registration of the same trademark in more than 100 countries at the same time by filling in an application form.
Madrid trademark registration in Yiwu has brought many conveniences to enterprises, market operators and individual trademark applicants with transnational trade needs.
Zhejiang Geely Holding Co., Ltd. is the first enterprise to apply for the registration of Madrid trademark in Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center after it was approved to accept Madrid trademark registration application service.
According to the data, on November 21st last year, Geely Holdings submitted three applications for registration of six trademarks including “GBLUE” in a total of 36 countries, with each involving 12 countries. The categories of products that apply for registered trademarks involve automobile chassis, tires, electric vehicles, vehicle anti-theft equipment; the countries that apply for registered trademarks involve the United States, Belarus, Australia, Turkey, Switzerland, as well as the European Union and other places.
At present, Geely Holdings has entered the payment stage in its application for registration of Madrid trademarks. This means that in a few months, the company will receive an international registration certificate for the relevant trademark.
In the Madrid trademark registration service accepted by Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center, Yiwu Haowei Biotechnology Co., Ltd is the largest in numbers of one-time applications. The company applies for the registration of CANYE trademark in 50 countries in the European Union, Southeast Asia, Central and Western Asia, North America and other places, with its product categories involving mosquito incense, insecticides, parasitic agents, moth control agents, etc.
As we know, the Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center has accepted 11 Madrid trademark registration applications in the past year. The applicants include 4 Yiwu local enterprises, 5 foreign enterprises and 2 local natural persons. Four applications have passed the preliminary examination and entered the payment stage smoothly.
Industry insiders revealed that over the past 20 years, Yiwu enterprises and market operators continue to increase the ratio of foreign trade, and foreign-related trade actively led to the awareness of intellectual property rights protection of businessmen. In order to better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of private trademarks abroad, many well-known local enterprises registered their own trademarks in many countries through various channels many years ago. Nowadays, with the extension of the foreign trade of Yiwu businessmen, buying trademarks abroad, applying for registered trademarks one by one in one country or several countries, and applying for registered international trademarks are becoming the “standard” of transnational trade. Establishing an international trademark acceptance window in Yiwu is beneficial not only for enterprises to apply for registration of international trademarks nearby, but also for local businesses to better popularize the awareness of international trademark rights protection.
Save application costs—-“Pack” registered international trademarks saves a lot of money
For the registration of international trademarks, the most important concern is the cost.
What is the cost of international trademark registration? —-This is a question asked the most in the daily work of the staff in Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Defense Service Center.
Trademark registrants have calculated that applicants applying for registration of the same trademark in the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom need to pay about 10,850 yuan, about 7,300 yuan and about 6,200 yuan, respectively, in total about 24,350 yuan, according to the current exchange rate. Relatively speaking, Madrid trademark registration, which several registration are applied at the same time, is much cheaper.
“Many applicants don’t know much about Madrid trademark registration, so they are sensitive to the charges of this business.” Yang Taihao, a staff member of Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Protection Service Center, said that one of the advantages of Madrid trademark registration is that it can save the application fee. When the applicant is applying trademarks in a large number of countries, the overall cost may not be low. But in terms of the average cost of a single country, it is the most cost-effective. For example: through Madrid trademark registration, applying for the registration of the same trademark in the above three countries would cost about 15200 yuan in total.
“Adding service charge, it cost more than 20,000 yuan to apply for the registered trademark in India, Chile, the Philippines and Brazil at that time. Now, India and the Philippines have joined the Madrid Agreement and become members of the league. It can save a lot of money to apply for international trademarks of relevant countries now.” Wang Xiao introduced that in recent years, the company has gradually expanded new sales markets in African countries. Not long ago, he learned from Yiwu Intellectual Property Rights Protection Service Center that the African Intellectual Property Organization and some African countries are also members of the Madrid Union, which will bring a lot of convenience for the company to apply for trademarks in relevant African countries. He also mentioned that if the Madrid trademark registration business can be more widely accepted, the company will save more application fees.
Xu Jie introduced that more than 10 years ago, when he accepted the entrust of some Yiwu enterprises to apply for the Madrid trademark, there were more than 80 countries to choose. In a small number of countries that were not members at that time, the registration application of a trademark cost from US $5600 to US $4500 more. Now there are more than 100 member countries in the league, and the cost of registration for the Madrid trademark in packs has declined significantly.
In general, they do not recommend applicants to choose only one or a few countries when applying for registration of the Madrid trademark, Yang said, because for each business, the intellectual property rights service center will charge 5600 yuan for the “guaranteed” registration fee, and then charge the accumulated fees according to the application fees of different countries. In short, if the applicant applies for Madrid trademark registration in only one country, the total cost may be higher than the cost of applying for trademark registration in a single country.
It is understood that in order to encourage market operators to carry out the Madrid trademark registration, Yiwu Municipal government has given substantial subsidies to the Madrid trademark registration—–after the applicant successfully registered the Madrid trademark through Yiwu intellectual property rights service center, he can get half of the registration fee of each “guaranteed base”.
Avoid different restrictions—-Several international trademark registration methods are available.
In contrast, international trademark registration has more restrictions on applicants. However, business owners and operators can still find a reasonable way to avoid it.
“A few days ago, when I went to a trademark office to consult about the trademark registration stuffs, I was told by the staff that some countries require the applicant to live for a certain period of time, for example, to live in the local place for a full year before applying for a registered trademark in that country; some countries have restrictions on the categories of single application goods; different countries have different regulations on the submitted trademark patterns… ”Chen Yan told reporters, after consultation, she was still confused and did not figure out how to apply for registration of foreign trademarks.
Some market operators also say that different countries have different requirements and restrictions on trademark registration. If they still apply for registration in a single country applies in steps as before, they may not succeed in registration in three or four years.
According to the staff of Yiwu intellectual property rights service center, in general, with the help of Madrid trademark registration, applicants can effectively avoid many problems that may be encountered when registering trademarks in a single country. For example: you can apply for a registered trademark only when you live in a certain country for a certain period of time; if you do not set up a company or enterprise in a certain country, the trademark you apply for registration must be temporarily registered in the name of the local people or other companies… These restrictions, which annoy applicants, can be easily circumvented. For the applicants, Madrid trademark registration is a “green channel” that breaks through various international trademark registration problems.
It is reported that at the beginning of Madrid trademark registration, the purpose is to facilitate the application and registration process of trademarks between the member countries of the alliance and strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of trademark owners. After more than 100 years of development, the convenience of its application registration system has been recognized by many countries. Because of this, many enterprises that intend to apply for the registration of their own trademarks at the same time in many countries have taken Madrid trademark registration as their first choice.
However, in spite of the advantages of Madrid trademark registration, applicant needs to deal with specific issues with specific solutions, and need to realize that not all application involving international trademark registration can be resolved through it.
As we know, the current ways of applying for registration of international trademarks can be roughly divided into four categories: Madrid trademark registration, EU trademark registration, African Intellectual Property Organization trademark registration, and single country trademark registration.
“From the naming methods of these four types of trademark registration, it can be seen that if the target countries of the trademark applicants are all in the EU or Africa, then application for trademark registration need to be submitted to the EU or the African Intellectual Property Organization; if the target countries of the applicants are relatively scattered, the trademark registration of Madrid can be considered, and then the trademark registration of a single country can be used for point coverage.” According to Xu Jie, the targeted application of international trademark registration can not only effectively reduce the time limit of application, but also save the cost of registration in a wider range.
Things need to pay attention when applying for the registration of an international trademark
The staff of Yiwu intellectual property rights protection service center reminded that when the trademark applicant submits the application for international trademark registration, it is better to check in advance according to the relevant regulations to see if you meets the application requirements:
The first is the qualification of the applicant. The applicant should have a real and effective business place in China, or have a residence in China, or have Chinese nationality. The legal person or natural person in Taiwan Province can apply for international registration through the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, while the legal person or natural person in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions cannot apply for international registration through the Trademark Office at present.
Second are the application conditions. A trademark applying for international registration may be a trademark that has been registered in China, or a trademark that has been applied for and accepted in China.
The third is the ways of applying. There are two ways for trademark applicants to apply for Madrid international trademark registration through the Trademark Office: one is to entrust a trademark agency recognized by the state (such as Yiwu intellectual property rights protection service center, or other trademark offices that carry out the business), and the other is to submit an application to the Trademark Office by themselves (you can log in to the official website of the Trademark Office for inquiry).
The fourth is the procedure. The process is as follows: first, prepare the application materials, and then submit the application materials. Then pay the registration fee according to the notice of fees, and finally get the international registration certificate. If the applicant can enjoy the local registration fee subsidy policy, he or she shall apply for the relevant subsidy after obtaining the certificate.
Fifth are application materials. The trademark applicant can get the relevant forms from the international trademark agency. Fill in the Chinese and English application forms as required and submit them. At the same time, the enterprise shall provide business license and trademark card, and the natural person shall provide ID card and trademark card.
Finally, it’s the trademark time limit. The period of validity of international registration is 10 years from the date of international registration. After the expiration of the validity period, if the trademark owner wants to continue to use the trademark, the registration shall be renewed.
