- April 9, 2022
- Posted by: PandaChecks
- Category: Trademark
- What is a trademark assignment?
With regard to trademark assignment, it means that the trademark holder transfers the trademark to others in accordance with legal procedures within the validity period of the registered trademark. Generally speaking, a trademark assignment is a change in the owner of a registered trademark, i.e. a way to acquire trademark rights.
Specifically, there are generally three ways for a trademark owner to transfer trademark rights to others:
1) The trademark right is transferred through an assignment contract, that is, the trademark owner transfers the registered trademark by signing an assignment contract with the trademark registrant. assignee;
2) Transfer the trademark right by inheritance;
3) Assignment of trademark rights by administrative order.
- What are the benefits of trademark transfer?
As we said before, trademark assignment is one way to obtain trademark rights, but we can also obtain trademark rights by filing an application for trademark registration with the Trademark Office. Generally, the cost of filing an application for trademark registration is lower than the cost of acquiring trademark rights through assignment. In this case, why do so many companies or individuals want to obtain trademark rights through assignment? That’s because trademark assignment has the following advantages:
(1) In terms of time, the allocation procedure takes much less time than the registration procedure. Usually, it takes about a year to get a trademark approved by the China Trademark Office by filing an application for trademark registration. It only takes about six months to obtain trademark rights through a trademark transfer.
From this point of view, the transfer of trademarks can save time and cost. As we all know, in society, time is money and time is business opportunity. Buying a trademark will be a huge time advantage for enterprises.
(2) In terms of success rate, the success rate of assignment is much higher than that of registration. For trademark registration, the China Trademark Office may reject it on the grounds that it is the same or similar to the earlier registered trademark. Therefore, there is a certain risk of failure of trademark registration application. However, the trademark used for assignment must be a registered trademark; therefore, there is no risk of failure of the above-mentioned trademark registration. As long as the assignment of the trademark is carried out in accordance with legal procedures, in most cases, the China Trademark Office will approve the assignment of the trademark.
It can be seen that trademark transfer can reduce the risk of obtaining a trademark and enable enterprises to enter the authorization process as soon as possible.
(3) In terms of trademark value, it is usually easy to remember, spread, and have important trademarks that have been registered by others, and it is difficult for enterprises to apply for good trademarks. If a company wants a good trademark that can satisfy the corporate image and is easy to remember and spread, it will be a good choice to buy a trademark from the trademark owner.
- What are the basic procedures for trademark assignment?
As I mentioned before, there are three ways to assign a trademark. Regardless of the way to transfer a trademark, both the assignor and the assignee should go through the corresponding transfer procedures at the Trademark Office. It is clear that the assignment of trademarks must be approved by the China Trademark Office. If the assignor and the assignee have not gone through the corresponding transfer procedures at the China Trademark Office and obtained the approval of the China Trademark Office, the trademark cannot be transferred from the owner to the other party.
- How long does it take to go through the trademark transfer procedures?
Generally speaking, it takes about 6 to 10 months from filing a trademark transfer application to obtaining the trademark transfer approval certificate issued by the China Trademark Office.
- What documents are required for trademark transfer?
Here, we mainly introduce the documents required for contract assignment of trademarks. The required documents are as follows:
(1) the assignment of the trademark in the contract;
(2) Identification documents of the assignor and the assignee (scanned copies are sufficient);
(3) Power of Attorney.