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Trademark revoked after three years of non-use?

Release Time：

2022-08-27

Huazhong University of Science and Technology know it, located in Wuhan, a key university, they registered a number of trademarks "Huazhong University of Science and Technology" "Huazhong University" and so on from the perspective of intellectual property protection.

Speaking of which

All is well

It is normal for Huazhong University of Science and Technology to register these trademarks

No problem protecting your own school name

But now!

It's turned around!

In October 2019, a logistics company applied to the State Intellectual Property Office to revoke 4 trademarks registered by Huazhong University of Science and Technology!

The four trademarks are:

1, "Huazhong University of Science and Technology" trademark registration in Class 35 "advertising" and other approved use services

2. The registration of "Huazhong University" trademark in all approved services such as Class 39 "Freight delivery"

3. Registration of "Huazhong University" trademark in all approved services such as Class 35 "Organization Technology Exhibition"

4, "Huazhong University of Science and Technology" trademark registration in Class 39 "freight delivery" and other approved use services

What does that mean?

Once the logistics company's application is passed, the four trademarks registered by Huazhong University of Science and Technology will be revoked, the school can no longer use them, and other companies can also re-register the four trademarks.

The logistics company believes that Huazhong University of Science and Technology has not used these four trademarks for three consecutive years

In accordance with the provisions of the Trademark Act , where a registered trademark becomes the generic name of the goods approved for use by it or is not used for three consecutive years without justifiable reasons, any entity or individual may apply to the Trademark Office for cancellation of the registered trademark.

Is Huazhong University of Science and Technology going to lose these trademarks? It's not that simple!

After receiving the application, the State Intellectual Property Office immediately required Huazhong University of Science and Technology to submit evidence of the use of the trademark within two months after receiving the notice, or to prove that there is a valid reason for not applying.

The lawyer team helped the Office of Policies and Regulations of the university to actively respond, obtain evidence of trademark use, and analyze the particularity of trademark use in colleges and universities.

In the defense documents submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office, the school cited evidence of the use of trademarks such as "Huazhong University of Science and Technology" in the three years from 2016 to 2019.

That is to say, in these three years, they are not completely did not use these four trademarks.

Therefore, the cancellation of these four trademarks is contrary to the legislative intention of the state not to revoke trademarks for three years.

Finally, in June 2020, Huazhong University of Science and Technology received a decision from the State Intellectual Property Office 4 to reject the above-mentioned logistics company's cancellation application and maintain the validity of the four trademarks.

In this case, Huazhong University of Science and Technology defended its registered trademark, but not every time the university trademark withdrawal three cases, the university can defend its trademark oh

For example, the 32 types of "Tsinghua" trademarks registered by Tsinghua University were revoked, the reason is also "the trademark has not been used for three consecutive years"!

In the same case of trademark withdrawal, why can HUST defend its trademark, while Tsinghua University has not?

In fact, the reason is very simple, Huazhong University of Science and Technology can present a certificate of use of the trademarks involved in the case within three years, but Tsinghua University really did not use these trademarks in three years.

It can be seen that even well-known universities and well-known trademarks, if they do not carefully maintain their registered trademarks and do a good job of trademark management, they will also suffer losses in front of laws and regulations.

Trademark Knowledge Lesson:

What is a trademark withdrawal?

What is a trademark withdrawal? The third is a registered trademark cancellation processing procedure, which means that the registered trademark is not used for three consecutive years without valid reasons and is legally filed by others to cancel the trademark application.

Why is there a trademark withdrawal?

According to the second paragraph of Article 49 of the Trademark Act, "Where a registered trademark has not been used for three consecutive years without justifiable reasons, any entity or individual may apply to the Trademark Office for cancellation of the registered trademark." The aim is to remove idle trademarks and avoid wasting public resources.

How to deal with the defense trademark being "withdrawn three"?

There are two ways to respond:

① Provide a valid reason why the mark is not being used

② Provide evidence of the use of the trademark

(1) Valid reasons for not using the trademark

Article 67 of the Regulations on the Implementation of the Trademark Act stipulates: "The following circumstances are valid reasons as provided for in Article 49 of the Trademark Law: (1) Force majeure; (2) government policy restrictions; (3) bankruptcy liquidation; (4) other legitimate causes not attributable to the trademark registrant."

(2) Management of the daily use of defense trademarks

(1) The use of advertising: the forms of advertising promotion include: (1) the promotion of traditional advertising media such as newspapers, publications, television, radio, light boxes, street signs, and large outdoor facilities; ② Publicity and promotion on the Internet platform.

When advertising trademarks, advertising materials that contain complete trademarks and can be linked to specific commodities, such as web links, videos, magazines, photos, signed agreements, and invoices, shall be kept in a timely manner. This kind of advertising has low cost, low cost and simple procedures, and is the simplest way to use defensive trademarks.

(2) License to others: The defense trademark can be licensed to others for use, in order to ensure its legal effect, should do a "trademark license record", keep the "trademark license contract", and require the licensee to provide evidence of use, and retain.

(3) Graphic trademark registration copyright use: if the defense trademark is a graphic, copyright registration can be carried out, after the graphic registration copyright, even if it has not been put into use, there is no need to worry about the problem of "withdrawal three", and the same trademark application of others will infringe the prior copyright.

(3) Emergency remedial measures

If there is no valid reason and no evidence of use when the defense trademark is filed for withdrawal, the trademark can be registered in a circular manner and actively defended at the same time, so as not to give others the opportunity to take advantage of it.

Source: Wuhan Market Supervision

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