Importance of trademark inquiry

Trademark inquiry refers to the process in which a trademark registration applicant or his/her agent, before filing an application for registration, inquires whether the trademark he/she applies for is the same or similar to the trademark of the prior right, so as to know whether the trademark he/she intends to apply for registration is the same or similar to the trademark already registered or being registered by others. The inquiry before application is an important step in applying for trademark registration. Although the inquiry result does not have legal effect, it can make the trademark registration applicant know well, reduce blindness, and reduce the risk of trademark registration. Therefore, while greatly reducing expenses, it can strive for more application time.

Reliability of query results

The scope of trademark inquiry is generally limited to the registered trademarks and trademarks under application that have entered the database of the Trademark Office since the date of inquiry, and does not contain the information of prior rights under review, so there is a blank period, or a blind area. Generally, the success rate of trademark registration can be determined only after another trademark approximate inquiry is made 3 months after the trademark application.

Same or similar query

According to Article 28 of the Trademark Law of China, where a trademark applied for registration does not conform to the relevant provisions of this Law or is identical or similar to the trademark of another person that has been registered or preliminarily approved for the same or similar goods, the Trademark Office shall reject the application and shall not publish it. Therefore, it should be inquired before the application, so that the trademark can obtain the trademark certificate as much as possible. At the same time, it generally takes more than six months for a registered trademark to be accepted by the Trademark Office and announced. If the registered trademark is rejected without inquiry, it will not only waste money, but more importantly, it will waste time and delay the use of the trademark.

The query before trademark registration usually refers to the query of trademark information carried out by the trademark registration applicant before applying for trademark registration in order to find out whether there are prior trademark rights that may conflict with the trademark applied for registration.