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In mid -March last year, the United States Hodgson Russ Law was found to be suspicious during a regular registered trademark maintenance inspection for customers. New trademark applications that have never been submitted.
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The partner of the law firm and intellectual property lawyer Neil \u0026 Middot; Neil Friedman said to the Voice of the United States: \u0026 ldquo; (System) Those documents see that the customer's name and address are right, but the contact information listed on the application is fake. \u0026 rdquo;
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Friedman immediately appealed to the US Patent and Trademark Office to report the trademark application for fraud.
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The relevant information disclosed by the U.S. Patent and Trademarks shows that the applicant of this fraud trademark registration is from China. He uses QQ mailbox as contact information information And misappropriated the name of the American lawyer to sign the application. The U.S. Patent and Trademarks also received similar appeals from other American companies in the survey, and found that the Chinese applicant also faked its name to apply for 10 trademarks involving other American companies.
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The Office of Commissioner For Trademarks (OFFICE of Commissioner for Trademarks) subsequently issued an order to claim the reason for this China applicant. SHOW CAUSE), in May this year, finally made a sanction order to terminate the trademark application procedure involved in the case and permanently prohibit the applicant from applying for a trademark from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
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Fortunately, when Friedman and his customers found problems, the false trademark just applied for a short time. Friedman said that if it is found or the application procedure has been further later, although they can remedy the US Patent and Trademark Office, the damage that the fraud may cause the damage. \u0026 rdquo;
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Application has increased
\u0026 nbsp; ] Fraud trademark registration from China is not a new issue. In recent years, Chinese Enterprise ApplicationThe surge in the number of American trademarks, and the malicious registration and fraud registration that follows the purpose of not using it, has caused some concerns. \u0026 nbsp;
Data from the US Patent and Trademark Office showed that the number of trademark applications from China surged 1264%from 2013 to 2017, from less than 5,000 violence from less than 5,000 pieces of violence Increased to more than 76,000 pieces. And this number has been rising since then. According to the statistics of Barton Beebe, a professor of intellectual property law at the Law School of New York University, in 2020, the US Patent and Trademark Office received 171,000 trademark applications from China, which is equivalent to every four new applications. In China, there is one from China. \u0026 nbsp;
Senior Republican member of the Intellectual Property Group Committee of the US Senate Judicial Committee and the Federal Senator of North Carolina Federal Senator Tom \u0026 Middot; Thom Tillis 2019 He has pointed out: \u0026 ldquo; I am worried that the application of trademarks from China is leading to such a situation. The fraudulent trademark is congestion registration system, hindering the obtaining trademarks of legal American companies and brand holders, affecting their protection and promotion of their own reputation. \u0026 rdquo; \u0026 nbsp;
Cai Jingming, a lawyer of San Jose Tianhua Law Firm, California believes that the development of e -commerce such as Amazon is the reason why trademark applications from China have increased. He said to VOA: \u0026 ldquo; With the increase of Sino -US trade, the increase in e -commerce is the main factor I can see. And Amazon is becoming more and more important, and it requires merchants to register a brand. \u0026 rdquo; He said that some of his customers were to sell things on Amazon and need to register trademarks. \u0026 nbsp;
According to the report of the market pulse (Marketplace Pulse) of the e -commerce analysis agency, among Amazon's best -selling merchants, the proportion of Chinese sellers from May 2016 11%rose to 42%at the end of 2020. \u0026 nbsp;
If the merchant owns a registered trademark, it is eligible to join the Amazon Brand Registry program to allow their brand to obtain more protection, products It is easier to get user trust. \u0026 nbsp;
\u0026 nbsp; researchProfessor Bibi, who is a trademark law and related issues, believes that the e -commerce platform is a factor, but compared with, China's subsidy policy is a more major driving factor for Chinese companies to apply for a large number of American trademarks, and to a certain extent, it has encouraged fraud. Application behavior.
In the past ten years, in order to encourage the development of independent brands and brand innovation, many provinces and cities in China have issued relevant support policies to support Chinese companies in China in China in China Registered with overseas registered trademarks. For overseas registered trademarks, the subsidy quota is ranging from several thousand yuan for each successful registration, and some are some of the registered fees for reimbursement.
For example, Shenzhen has provided a subsidy of 5,000 yuan per person from a single country in the United States since 2013. Shenzhen adjusted the relevant regulations in 2019 and reduced the amount of each subsidy to 1,000 yuan. However, there are still high subsidies in other cities in China. For example, the trial method of intellectual property funding issued by Beijing at the end of 2019 stipulates that a registered trademark in a single country can receive up to 5,000 yuan in funding.
These subsidies are often higher than 250 US dollars (about 1,600 yuan) to submit trademark applications online. (The US Patent and Trademark Office receded the cost to $ 225 in 2015.)
Bibi said to the Voice of the United States: \u0026 ldquo; some China some some Entrepreneurs saw the amount of subsidies higher than the cost of applying for trademarks, so they wanted to collect differences and earn profits, which said that. They try to use these subsidy projects and understand. But the negative impact is that the Patent and Trademark Office is now full of fraud applications. \u0026 rdquo;
The US Patent and Trademark Office also noticed these issues. The report of the federal agency in January this year's \"Impact of Chinese Trademarks and Patents: Impact of Non -Marketing Factors on Application Trends and Intellectual Property Systems\" said that the application of subsidies and maliciousness of the Chinese government (Bad Faith) is influxed from China to a large number The main factor for patent and trademark applications. The report also pointed out that since providing subsidies for overseas trademark registrations in various provinces and cities in China, the US Patent and Trademark Office has also experienced a significant increase in the number of fraudulent trademark applications from China.
\u0026 nbsp; According to the United States Regulations for federal trademark registration, applicationPeople must prove that the trademark is commercially used in the United States. Bibi said that some trademark applications from China, from the submitted product sample pictures, can be seen that fraudulent and suspicious use information, because the picture has P pictures traces, or the trademark on the product in the picture is not the original existence of the original existence It was later moved to pick up the flowers.
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How many of the trademark applications from China are fraudulent, or how many are rejected because of these false information, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office No relevant data is released. As of press time, the US Patent and Trademark Office has not yet responded to the email of the Voice of America.
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Bibi and colleagues did a sample survey on the registration status of clothing trademarks from China in 2017, and found that in these applications, about three points The second contains false sample pictures, and these fraudulent trademark applications have subsequently entered the publicity stage and about 39%were finally approved.
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If the sampling results are placed in all applications, Bibi believes that \u0026 ldquo; Among the trademarks, it is estimated that 15%to 20%are fraud. \u0026 rdquo;
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He said that the United States faces the problem of depletion of trademark resources, and almost all English words have been registered with trademarks. Use any letters to make trademarks, which may have been registered. He said that fraudulent trademarks from China make this problem more serious and harm the interests of legal enterprises and trademark holders in the United States and even China.
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He said: \u0026 ldquo; The overall result of American companies and global companies is that Chinese fraud trademark registration hinders legal enterprises to find good products for their products for their products The brand name. This influence is still mild, but every year we see a significant increase in influence. \u0026 hellip; \u0026 hellip; This is not only not conducive to the patent and trademark bureau, but also not conducive to many high -quality Chinese merchants holding real registered trademarks. They are also suffering from the damage to these fraudulent registration. \u0026 rdquo;
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Investigation and law enforcement
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In order to cope with these issues, from August 2019, the US Patent and Trademark Office requires foreign trademark applications to be signed by lawyers with American practice qualificationssubmit. However, from the perspective of 2020 applications, this measure is limited. \u0026 nbsp;
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in 2022 has begun. With various policies in the United States and China landing, we have an optimistic attitude towards the US trademark registration market this year.It can develop positive, so that the trademark truly exerts its core value -------- to protect the brand and protect intellectual property!
