1. Amazon US station e -commerce application for US trademark registration
(1) Application for US trademark registration is a necessary prerequisite for the Amazon brand filing
Amazon has continued to advance in recent years. Brandization, it requires that sellers who settle in the platform of the United States to apply for US trademark registration and have brand filing on the Amazon platform to achieve the purpose of brand building, brand analysis, and brand protection. After the seller's brand filing can effectively lock the link to prevent others from selling this malignant behavior at will, and can get more platform operating rights to increase the sales and rankings of the product, such as the establishment of a brand flagship store.At the end of 2020, Amazon U.S. Station opened an application for brand filing for brand filing after obtaining a trademark acceptance notice (hereinafter referred to as \"TM bid\"), that is, e -commerce companies You can use the TM label to enter the Amazon brand for filing or directly use the obtained trademark registration certificate (hereinafter referred to as the \"R bid\") for Amazon brand filing. The TM standard brand filing is a way of welfare to e -commerce provided by Amazon to the brand development intention to enjoy part of the rights and interests of the platform. If the subsequent trademark registration is successful, the TM standard brand filing can be converted to the RMB brand filing; if the subsequent trademark registration failed, the TM target brand filing will be canceled or stayed in this state.
The brand permissions after the record of the TM and R tabs have different brand permissions. The R bidding record has a more comprehensive brand protection permission than the TM standard filing, such as automatic brand protection and reporting infringement. The main comparison is as follows:
So for Amazon e -commerce, completing the US trademark registration application before developing the US station market is successfully developing the United States The key step of the market is also an important prerequisite for achieving brand protection.
]
In recent years, the number of Shenzhen companies involving US trademark lawsuits has shown a growth trend. In the US trademark litigation case involved in Shenzhen companies for five consecutive years, more than 95%of Shenzhen companies As the defendant, most of them are small and medium -sized enterprises of cross -border e -commerce. These cross -border e -commerce are mostly due to the limitation of regional protection due to the intellectual property involved. reasonAs a result, it may violate the trademark rights of others during the operation, thus involving the infringement dispute, which is included in but not limited to the adverse effects listed below: 1. [ 123]
The adverse effects brought by the default trademark infringement
Ruo Amazon US station e -commerce to sell it with the ownership of other people's trademark ownership without registered trademarks. Products may cause their own tort. U.S. courts can release temporary restrictions on Amazon account funds that will be temporarily restricted without notifying e -commerce. Amazon e -commerce needs to spend a lot of time and money to deal with disputes. If the court's judgment of infringement is established, in addition to the high amount of claims required by the judgment, e -commerce may be permanently issued by a permanent ban, which may even lead to serious consequences of store shutdown. At the same time, the plaintiff may also restrict all affiliated receipt accounts that they can inquire about according to the judgment, which has a huge impact on the overall operation of Amazon e -commerce. 2.
The adverse effects of non -registered trademark on their own brand protection
Electric electricity When the business operates at the Amazon US station, if you do not apply for a US trademark registration, one is that it cannot adapt to Amazon's brand -oriented policy to record brand filing, and it cannot effectively crack down on the infringement of other merchants through the platform; The creation and long -term development of its own brand lacks powerful legal weapons when facing other people's infringement.
Therefore, with the increasing risk of US trademark lawsuits, registered American trademarks have become important measures for cross -border e -commerce defense trademarks, and actively applying for registered American trademarks to protect independent brands is necessary Essence
] 2. Amazon American station e -commerce applied for registered American trademarks [ 123] Amazon American Station The way e -commerce can choose to register an American trademark
mainly includes a single national registration and Madrid trademark international registration designated the United States.(1) A single national registration method []
[] [] []
[][] [] [] [] [] [] [
123]A single state registration means that the applicant directly submits a registered application to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for trademark registration.
According to the US Trademark Law, trademark registration applicants Enterprises, institutions, social groups, businessmen, and natural persons in any country or region can be.It should be noted that on July 2, 2019, in order to reduce an illegal application for overseas applicants, USPTO announced a new rule that all foreign applicants must be one by one. Acting lawyer who has obtained the license to the United States to handle its trademark business in the United States [1]
. Therefore, for my country ’s cross -border e -commerce companies in the United States of Amazon, Chinese companies and individuals must entrust lawyers to hold American practicing qualifications when conducting US trademark registration applications.The Lanham Act Article 15 stipulates [2] , any \"text, name, symbol, pattern or combination\" that meets the requirements can be registered as a commodity or service logo. According to the form of trademark expression, it is mainly divided into text, graphics/design trademarks, sound trademarks and three -dimensional three -dimensional trademarks. Texts and graphics are common trademark types.
3. Application foundation
4.
Application fee
[ 123] The cost of US trademark registration is mainly composed of two parts, including official fees and lawyers' agency fees charged by USPTO. The trademark fee is fixed within a certain period of time, and the agency fee will be different according to the different set meals that the agent charges the standard and the selected package. For example, the useful trademark application officer fee is about $ 350/each; the trademark application officer fee for intention use is about $ 450/each category. The cost of applying for trademark registration (excluding agency fees) in the use of online methods, as shown in the figure below:
US trademark application related official fees Project number
(3) Trademark review phase
If the applicant's information meets the requirements, USPTO will allocate materials to the materials to The reviewer further reviews to determine whether the applicant's trademark application meets the requirements of federal law. The review cycle is 3-6 months.
After the review passed, USPTO will announce the registered trademark. The announcement is published on the official website of USPTO and updated every week. If the announcement period is 30 days, if you have any objections to the trademark, you should submit an objection application to USPTO within 30 days. USPTO will review the objection within 2 months, and the disagreement will enter the next stage.
(6) Registration phase
If there is no third -party objection or objection, it is not established, and at the end of the announcement period of the trademark announcement period Later, USPTO will approve the registered trademark and issue a registered certificate.
After obtaining the trademark registration certificate The R standard, or the R standard brand is directly recorded to obtain more comprehensive brand permissions.
Madrid trademark trademark International registration specifies the United States Method
As mentioned earlier, e -commerce intended to enter Amazon US station can apply to USPTO to register a trademark Registration protection can also extend the protection to the United States through Madrid's international registration. The following is comparison of the length of the main stage of the two application methods:
Application method
Apply to USPTO directly
Register the United States through Madrid's registration [ 123]
Acceptance time required about 1-10 working days [123 ] Received Madrid International Registration Certificate in 6-10 months
[ [ [
[(一)提交使用证据
[123 ] The US Trademark Law stipulates that from the 5th to 6th years from the date of success of the trademark registration, and each 10 years after registration, evidence should be submitted to USPTO. Otherwise, USPTO has the right to request overdue to pay a fine or revoke a registered trademark that has not been used in use.
(2) Submit an oath
] Article 8 of the U.S. Trademark Law stipulates that in the 5th and 6th years of trademark registration, trademark registrars must submit an oath signed by USPTO, and the registered trademark has been used within 5 years after the trademark registration. All trademarks and services approved.
(三)商标续展[123 ] The United States Trademark Renewal is the same as domestic exhibition. It is exhibited once every 10 years, and the validity period is also 10 years after the renewal. The time of submitting the renewal is within six months (wide exhibition period) of the first half of the registration period to the expiration of the registration period. If the renewal period is filed during the 6 -month wide exhibition period after the registration period expires, a fine shall be paid.
Special precautions
] Determination of the application foundation
As mentioned earlier, when the Amazon American station e -commerce must first apply for a trademark registration application, it must be sure of firstlyThe application basis for the fixed trademark (including the use, or intention, or based on the domestic registration foundation, or the application -based application). When the main discussion of the application for trademark registration based on the use of the application is based on the use of the application foundation, the Amazon brand filing rules and the rules of the US trademark law conflict with the company's response measures.
Before the e -commerce company enters Amazon U.S. Station for product sales or early sales, it must be made in the brand filing to carry out brand building, brand analysis, and brand protection. The risks of various complaints or infringements have even led to the serious consequences of store shutdown. The premise of brand filing is to apply for US trademark applications and have a TM or R bid. When Chinese e -commerce applications are applied for American trademarks, if you adopt the basis for using the application, it is required to provide evidence first use in the United States. That is, the Amazon platform is the first channel to sell in the United States. Therefore, under the conflict between the rules of the Amazon brand filing rules and the US trademark law, some e -commerce companies choose to avoid the relevant regulations of the US trademark law and use false use evidence to apply for trademarks in order to conduct Amazon brand filing. Great risks to be rejected or revoked. Therefore, before the use of evidence before using the evidence before the use of evidence, e -commerce can consider applying for the application of the application to register the US trademark through the application foundation of intention use. And put the trademark into use within 6 months after the application submitted, and submit the Statement OF USE. Although this method will also increase the relevant procedures and costs accordingly, compared with the inevitable instability risk brought by false evidence, it is recommended that e -commerce always put the legal compliance of the application process first.
About the application for application Registered products
/ The determination of the service Different from my country's trademark application and review system, the US trademark application is used in use At the same time, the review is not based on the group as the unit to review. Each project/service item applied for registration requires the applicant to provide evidence. Therefore, the more projects applying for registration, the heavier the burden of the applicant's provision of evidence. The problem of evidence of the use of a commodity/service project may be affected by the entire trademark, and it may even cause the serious consequences of the entire trademark to waste the abolition of the entire trademark. Essence The practice of adding some unrelated commodity/service projects for \"greedy\" to increase the unnecessary registration risk of unnecessary registration.
SoIt is recommended that Amazon e -commerce applied for registration according to actual needs. Before applying for submission, it is necessary to confirm whether the registered product/service items that have been registered have been actually used or intended to be used. Do not blindly increase the registration items for the application of the product/service items to apply for the registration.About the earliest Fill in the use time
When applying for registered US trademarks, the earliest use time of the trademark must be filled out during the use of evidence. If subsequent cases involving trademark objections or invalidation, or involving this time in the dispute, whether it can provide practical time evidence will be a key factor that the trademark will be revoked.
About the use of use The importance of evidence At present, the failure to submit \"use evidence\" has become one of the main reasons for Chinese e -commerce companies to apply for fakes of US trademark materials. The review of evidence is becoming more and more stringent. In the past, some applicants for pseudo -use evidence in the past have been unable to avoid USPTO's strict review requirements. During the US trademark review process, when the examiner believes that the use of evidence is insufficient or there is a problem, they will issue an OFFICE Action Essence Even after the trademark is registered, the revocation of the unrealistic use of the trademark, according to the \"Amendment to the Implementation Regulations on the Implementation of the US Trademark Modernization Act in 2020\" on its official website on December 18, 2021, also added unilaterally to unilateral The elimination procedures and unilateral review procedures are also included in the reasons for \"unused\" in the US trademark trial and appealing committee (TTAB) application to revoke the revocation. The new law will have an impact on the application of false use of evidence. Therefore, the applicant should ensure that the evidence is legal and compliant, and the relevant use of evidence to ensure that the trademark that is submitted must be a trademark that is actually used or intentionally. Create false evidence of false use, otherwise it will constitute false applications and increase the risk of rejection or revocation of trademarks.
(5) Selection of trademark registration application methods
[
[ 123] For some Amazon US station e -commerce in the United States market that has trademark registration in the US market but cannot provide valid use of evidence in the short term. Trademark international registration specifies the US trademark application. The requirements of the US trademark application for trademark use evidence are very strict. Through a single country registration method, unless the applicant can provide the trademark registration certificate of the applicant's country (based on the trademark registration of other countries Submit a business statement), otherwise it must be submitted to real use evidence to finally obtain rights. However, through the way Madrid's designated U.S. way, it can provide valid evidence for 5-6 years from the registration date of the United States. At the same time, the corresponding application costs will also increase. Amazon e-commerce can weigh them according to their actual needs.
About proxy The choice of the agency The applicant should entrust a legally operated trademark agency to apply for submission, or directly entrusts American lawyers to submit it. Professional agencies or American lawyers will check the entire process of applying to the greatest extent and reduce the risks of subsequent trademark revocation procedures and trademark review procedures. Do not blindly pursue low prices when selecting an agency, and the agency that promotes low -cost registration is not only difficult to ensure the quality of service, but it is also likely to cause US trademarks to be rejected due to various non -compliance. Or the risk of cancellation, such as the use of false signatures, false registration addresses, abuse of USPTO accounts, etc.