Learn about Trademark legal issues

1. What is a trademark?

According to the provisions of Clause 16, Article 4 of the Intellectual Property Law 2005 Regulations on specific trademark concepts are as follows:

A trademark is a sign used to distinguish goods and services of different organizations and individuals.

Accordingly, a trademark is a sign used to distinguish goods and services of different organizations and individuals.

2. Some specific types of trademarks are regulated as follows:

- Collective mark: a mark used to distinguish the goods and services of members of the organization that owns the mark from the goods and services of organizations and individuals that are not members of the organization. that position.

- Certification mark: a mark that the mark owner allows other organizations and individuals to use on the goods and services of that organization or individual to certify the characteristics of origin, raw materials, materials, method of producing goods, method of providing services, quality, accuracy, safety or other characteristics of goods or services bearing the mark.

- Famous trademark: a trademark widely known to the relevant public in the territory of Vietnam.

How is the distinctiveness of a trademark determined?

As for regulations on distinctiveness of trademarks, Article 74 Intellectual Property Law 2005 Specific regulations are as follows:

(1) A trademark is considered distinctive if it is made up of one or several easily recognizable and memorable elements or from many elements combined into a whole that is easy to recognize, remember and do not fall into the cases specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

(2) A trademark is considered non-distinctive if it is a sign in one of the following cases:

- Simple geometric shapes and figures, numbers, letters, words in uncommon languages, except in cases where these signs have been widely used and recognized as a trademark;

- Signs, conventional symbols, drawings or common names of goods and services in any language that are widely used, regularly used and known by many people;

- Signs indicating time, place, method of production, type, quantity, quality, nature, composition, use, value or other characteristics descriptive of goods or services, except in cases where the sign has acquired distinctiveness through use before the time the trademark registration application is filed;

- Signs describing the legal form and business field of the business entity;

- Signs indicating the geographical origin of goods or services, unless that sign has been widely used and recognized as a trademark or registered as a collective mark or certification mark. accept the provisions of this Law;

- Signs that are not affiliated trademarks are identical or confusingly similar to trademarks that have been registered for identical or similar goods or services on the basis of a registration application with a filing date or priority date. earlier in case the registration application enjoys priority rights, including trademark registration applications filed under international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member;

- Signs identical or confusingly similar to another person's trademark that has been widely used and recognized for identical or similar goods or services before the filing date or priority date in the case of an application. enjoy priority rights;

- Signs identical or confusingly similar to another person's trademark registered for identical or similar goods or services whose trademark registration has been invalidated for no more than five years, except in cases where The validity is terminated because the mark is not used according to the provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 95 of this Law;

- Signs identical or confusingly similar to another person's considered well-known trademark registered for goods or services that are identical or similar to goods or services bearing a well-known trademark or registered for dissimilar goods or services, if the use of that sign may affect the distinctiveness of the famous mark or the trademark registration is intended to take advantage of the reputation of the famous mark;

- A sign that is identical or similar to another person's currently used trade name, if the use of that sign may cause confusion for consumers about the origin of goods or services;

- A sign identical or similar to a protected geographical indication if the use of that sign may cause consumers to misunderstand the geographical origin of the goods;

- A sign that is identical to a geographical indication or contains a geographical indication or is translated or transliterated from a protected geographical indication for wine or spirits if the sign is registered for use on wine. , spirits not originating from the geographical area bearing that geographical indication;

- Signs that are identical or not significantly different from another person's industrial design are protected on the basis of an industrial design registration application with a filing date or priority date earlier than the application filing date or priority date. of the trademark application.