Recently, according to the relevant information on the China Trademark network of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the “landing ship” trademark originally belonging to Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) (hereinafter referred to as Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) ) has been officially transferred to Byd Company Limited(002594) (hereinafter referred to as Byd Company Limited(002594) ) on February 1, 2022
source: Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, China Trademark network
It is understood that the “landing ship” is an MPV model of the Byd Company Limited(002594) Ocean network warship series, which is expected to be listed next year. According to the information released at present, the landing ship will benchmark GL8 in size, provide plug-in hybrid and pure electric power types, and the price will be in the range of 200000 ~ 300000 yuan.
In fact, this is not the first time the two companies have transferred trademarks. As early as January 2016, Byd Company Limited(002594) submitted an application for trademark registration of “Wei”, and then transferred it to Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) in 2021. At that time, Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) said that it would transfer other registered trademarks to Byd Company Limited(002594) . No wonder some netizens joked: “this is reciprocity.”
tank trademark has not been registered successfully?
While Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) and Byd Company Limited(002594) have been well publicized, the road of trademark registration of the tank brand of the former is quite difficult. The reporter of “daily economic news” learned through querying China Trademark network that the trademarks of “tank car”, “tank SUV” and “tank 300” applied for by Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) are still in the state of rejection for review or rejection or inadmissibility of the application.
According to Article 30 of the trademark law, “where a trademark applied for registration does not comply with the relevant provisions of this law or is the same or similar to a trademark already registered or preliminarily approved by others on the same or similar goods, the Trademark Office shall reject the application and shall not publish it.”
Over the past two years, Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) has registered multiple trademarks related to “tank”, and the status column shows “invalid”. The failure of the registration of relevant trademarks made the rumors that the tank brand might be renamed rampant. In this regard, tank brand insiders once told reporters: ” Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) tank series trademarks are being applied for, and the relevant work is advancing in an orderly manner .”
A lawyer said: “without the protection of the trademark law, the relevant trademark names of the tank brand increase the risk of being registered first by other enterprises. If they are registered first by other enterprises, the registrant has the right to sue the enterprise using the trademark.”
According to Article 57 of the trademark law, “using the same trademark as its registered trademark on the same commodity without the permission of the trademark registrant is an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark.”
At present, the popularity of tank brand models in the end consumer market is still high. Official data show that by the end of 2021, 220000 tank 300 orders had been placed, and the final delivery volume of the whole year was about 84600
the awareness of trademark protection of automobile enterprises is increasing
Whether it is the trademark transfer between the great wall and Byd Company Limited(002594) or the twists and turns of tank trademark registration, it shows that the awareness of trademark protection of automobile enterprises is increasing. Prior to this, due to the lack of attention to trademark protection, some car enterprises went to court for trademark disputes.
In 2014, GAC passenger cars collided with Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , but it is not the “G standard” currently used by GAC passenger cars, but the “V standard” designed and registered at the beginning of the establishment of GAC passenger cars. This logo is very similar to the logo currently used by Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) . Finally, after negotiation, the two sides reached a transfer agreement. GAC passenger car transferred the right to use the trademark at the price of 3 million yuan, and announced that all the expenses would be invested in public welfare undertakings.
According to the trademark registration data of China Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) automobile, by the end of 2019, nearly 70% of enterprises producing new energy vehicles had not registered their trademarks, and the completion rate of trademark registration application was only 1%. In addition, according to the annual report 2020 on intellectual property rights of China’s automobile industry (Blue Book 2020 on automobile intellectual property rights), from 2009 to 2019, the compound annual growth rate of the number of patent ownership and infringement disputes in the automobile industry was 36.38%, which is the fastest growing category of intellectual property cases in the automobile industry.
From the perspective of marketing, trademark is an intangible asset for brand, which plays a great role in improving brand awareness and brand loyalty. In addition to protecting their own brand trademarks, car enterprises are also keen to rush to register some trend trademarks. For example, ideal car, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , Weilai car, Xiaopeng car, etc. rush to register the trademark of “yuanuniverse”.
Cao Guangping, an independent researcher of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, said in an interview that the connotation and extension of the intelligent networked and advanced display technology of meta universe and vehicles objectively overlap, but the key depends on whether there is core hardware and software technology support. All virtual augmented reality and interactive technologies are not completely virtual in the end. Whether the most real software, hardware and content meet the needs of users and achieve the leading technology and level is the most important and practical significance for users and enterprises.
