Building a well-known brand, whether at home or abroad, is a process that requires significant and ongoing investment. Due to the regional use of trademarks, trademarks registered only in China are not protected overseas.
Therefore, Chinese trademarks and brands are often maliciously registered overseas. According to incomplete statistics, the proportion of domestic well-known trademarks registered overseas is as high as 15%. In the past 20 years, more than 2,000 export trademark commodities have been squatted. The loss of intangible assets is as high as 1 billion yuan.
For example, "Pixian Douban" was squatted in Canada, and "Hisense" was squatted by Siemens in Europe. After these trademarks were squatted, the cost of rights protection for domestic enterprises was too high, and they had to give up the market in the end.
The following explains in detail why to do overseas trademarks:
A trademark registered in a country or region can only be protected by intellectual property rights in that country or region (EU trademarks are valid for member states). Therefore, registering a trademark overseas can prevent others from infringing on your trademark rights, protect your trademark rights overseas, and at the same time make your trademark an international brand.
Cases of overseas trademark squatting occur frequently. If a trademark is maliciously squatted overseas by others, the company will suffer heavy losses. If a lawsuit is filed, high rights protection fees will be required. Redemption or acquisition of the right to use will also be extorted. Seriously May also be forced to change the brand name or abandon the market. Therefore, overseas registered trademarks can also protect their own trademarks in advance to prevent them from being squatted by others.
The overseas trademark registration cycle is relatively long, and most countries need 1-2 years. If you want to enter the overseas market, you need to do a good job in trademark registration in advance, and you can enjoy more rights. Otherwise, the overseas expansion plan of the market will be affected due to the untimely registration. If the service object is basically domestic, then there is no need to rush to register overseas trademarks.
A trademark is an intangible asset, and its value is also increasing along with the improvement of corporate reputation. However, if an overseas trademark is not registered, or if someone else is the first to preemptively register it, it will directly affect the outside world's assessment of the value of the company's assets. After registering an overseas trademark, it can realize the self-protection of the enterprise and build an international brand in a short period of time.
At present, the governments of some countries and regions have provided high subsidies, and preferential policies have been given to the registration of overseas trademarks of small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, a Shenzhen company can apply for a subsidy of 5,000-10,000 yuan to register an overseas trademark.
Due to the different countries in which international trademarks are registered, the examination system and required fees are also different. If you are considering registering an overseas trademark, you can consult a professional agency (Jilian consultants china) in detail to let them determine whether the trademark meets the application specifications, and you can also first check whether there is a similar trademark squatting.