"Sky Eye" has been squashed, let's see what "Shenzhou" and "Tiangong" do?
Our reporter Fu Yifei
In recent years, a "Tianyan" brand cigarette named after a 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) was launched. Although the cigarette manufacturer put forward such rhetoric as "tribute to the scientific spirit" and "memorialize Mr. Nan Rendong", this kind of cross-border marriage, which is quite suspected of being a hot spot, still aroused people's thinking about the protection of the big scientific engineering brand.
It is understood that the "Sky Eye" project was conceived in 1994 and was put into use on September 25, 2016. The National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences applied for and registered the "China Sky Eye" trademark on June 4, 2019. The trademark category covers a total of 20 items of goods and services. However, the aforementioned tobacco companies applied for the registration of the Chinese trademark "Tianyan" as early as 2017.
"In the development process of major national-level projects with social influence, responsibilities should be implemented and trademark applications should be organized as early as possible to prevent other companies or individuals from squatting, and reducing the risk of infringing on the trademark rights of others after being registered. Obtained the active defense right of trademark protection." Researcher Ji Li of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily.
The reporter learned that, as the backbone of China's space industry, the Fifth Academy has cultivated independent and distinct brand concepts and brand core values in major national special projects such as manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, and Beidou. Over the years, from the perspective of brand strategy and combined with the actual management of major special intellectual property rights, the institute has organized and implemented the entire process of trademark management. It has a series of major trademarks with aerospace characteristics such as "CAST", "Shenzhou", "Tiangong" and "Xuntian". Obtained a certain social influence and public visibility. Regarding the brand protection and development of large science projects, Jili put forward suggestions in conjunction with the related work of the Fifth Academy.
He Li suggested that in the process of implementing large science projects, trademark applications should be planned in advance to obtain the initiative to protect trademarks.
She introduced that the Fifth People's Hospital is managed in accordance with the principle of "unified management, hierarchical application, and multiple protection". In the work of multi-category application protection for major trademarks at the hospital level, "Shenzhou" and "CAST" adopted trademark protection strategies in key areas, and "Tiangong" and "Xuntian" adopted defensive protection strategies for trademark registration of all categories. The "Shenzhou" brand applied for trademarks in key areas in 1999, covering core content such as air transport aircraft, aerial vehicles, rockets, and missiles. Combining the needs of brand building, supplementary protection was carried out in 2000, 2007, and 2012, respectively, and expanded to life-saving equipment, satellite transmission, computer programming and other service areas, and finally obtained 22 registered trademark protections. One of them applied for well-known trademark protection in brand promotion and operation management, which can realize cross-category protection.
The top-level major trademarks are applied for separately, and there is a lack of connection protection with the secondary trademarks in the subsequent management, there will be the risk of weakening the distinctiveness of the trademark and reducing the brand value. Ji Li said that a unified trademark classification management system should be established to promote the derivation and association of major trademarks and secondary trademarks. Secondary trademarks should be based on major trademarks and follow the main business products for continuous application and layout, forming an interconnected trademark system, and promoting the effective upgrade of brand strategy development. For example, the units affiliated to the Fifth Academy have applied for registration of "Aerospace Shenzhou", "Shenzhou Lvya", "Shenzhou Tianrun", etc., forming the second-level sub-series derivative promotion of the "Shenzhou" trademark.
"In terms of trademark design, a single word trademark composition should be avoided, and graphics, numbers, colors, three-dimensional signs, sounds and other elements can be combined to enhance the innovation of trademark design so as to achieve distinctiveness different from other competing trademarks and reduce trademarks. During the application process, the trademark office’s rejection rate will be reviewed and registered as soon as possible, and the right to use will be confirmed.” Ji Li said, especially for pre-registered trademarks, trademark elements can be redesigned to increase the probability of registration and after the trademark is confirmed Vigorously promote the use.
According to the second paragraph of Article 49 of the "Trademark Law": "If a registered trademark has become the general name of the goods approved for use or has not been used for three consecutive years without proper reasons, any unit or individual may apply to the Trademark Office for cancellation of the registration Trademarks." As an economic and direct legal way, "Withdrawal of Three" is being used more and more frequently by some enterprises, and it has become a common means to remove the first obstacles in the process of trademark registration. The frequent occurrence of "three withdrawals" in recent years poses a great challenge to the future use management and brand system protection of major trademarks of the Fifth Court. Li said that from the experience of the Fifth Court, after careful planning and application, defensive trademarks or reserve registered trademarks with large social influence, high visibility, and multi-category protection will face the "three withdrawals" proposed by other enterprises and individuals. "The risk is higher. It is recommended to pay attention to the accumulation of use evidence in the process of trademark use, record and collect trademark use evidence in time, form a complete evidence chain of actual use of the trademark, actively respond to the "three withdrawals", and keep the legal status of the trademark valid.
At present, my country's strategy of strengthening the country with intellectual property rights continues to advance, and the punitive compensation for intellectual property infringement is continuously increased. The legal maximum compensation for trademark infringement has been increased from 500,000 yuan to 5 million yuan. Ji Li said that in this context, diversified rights protection methods should be used to maintain the brand image and prevent the trademark goodwill from being abused, vilified or free-riding by others. "Professional monitoring of trademark infringements, multi-dimensional crackdowns and rights protection are important aspects of trademark management." She said, "Proactively strengthening trademark rights protection can not only maintain a good brand image, but also clear obstacles to market development such as trademark licensing. , And even through effective brand management and rights protection measures, continuously improve and maintain the competitiveness of the brand."