How Startups Companies Choose A Proper Trademarks in China?

A good trademark represents the company image, in addition, a registered trademark protects your brand, and provides you with the tools to prevent someone using similar signs and riding off the back of your business. For foreign startups who want to start business in China, how should startups choose trademarks?

Understand Trademark Elements

First of all, the composition of trademarks is diverse, what kind of element can be used as a trademark.

• Traditional trademarks are mostly text, symbols, graphics or graphic compositions
• Modern trademarks have included sounds, colors, animations and 3D shapes

By now in China, most of the trademarks are in the form of text, graphics, or graphic compositions. In fact the elements of the mark can be more creative anti-traditional. Such as sound trademark, color combination trademark, 3D trademark, and even smell, touch trademark.

When companies choose a trademark, try to open your minds and choose richer elements as your own trademarks, because such trademarks will have advantage in creativity, and the possibility of trademark likelihood of confusion can be largely decreased. Be careful that the selection of elements must comply with the Trademark Law of the country where the trademark is used. For example, in China, the smell and touch trademarks are not recognized temporarily.

Uniqueness of Trademarks　　

Besides, trademarks must be unique. The main function of the trademark is to distinguish the goods and services from others, so it should be unique and easy to identified. Uniqueness is the prerequisite for the exclusiveness of trademark rights. The owner of the trademark enjoys the legal protection of the trademark. Anyone who uses the same or similar trademark without the permission of the owner of the trademark constitutes a trademark infringement and needs to bear corresponding legal liabilities.

Avoid being Overly Descriptive or Generic

Trademark applicant have exclusive rights on their trademarks, but the first requirement is that the applicant's trademark can not infringe upon the prior rights of others. In order to let customers understand the function of products or service, some applicants register trademarks directly using words that describe their own products or services, or even add some words to promote product quality. For example, a door manufacturing company tries to register their trademark as “Good Door”. This is strictly prohibited when registering trademark. In order to qualify as a trademark, the mark must not be overly descriptive or generic. Since the trademark registration is not easy, even if you register luckily, when the public comes to perceive that a trademark is generic, it will lose its legal status as a trademark.

1. So how to select trademark for startup companies, below are some selection criteria:
2. Easy to remember and recognize
3. Meaningful. Indicate corporate culture, characteristics, vision and persuasive
4. Affinity: make people feel happy, with beauty and comfort
5. Transferable: Across geographic boundaries and cultures, across product types
6. Flexible, easy to update
7. Can be registered

WTOIP, as a sharing service platform with a focus on IP, suggest you make sure the mark can be protected at the beginning. Then take company image, trading, marketing, customer preference and other aspects into consideration. Not only should it be easy to be remembered, but also convey the positioning of the company or product.