A tricky thing
Author | Lee thought
Edit | Jane
Produced by | Bangning Studio (gbngzs)
As early as January 19, 2016, BYD applied for the registration of the "Wei" trademark of the Dynasty series, and one year later, on February 28, 2017, it obtained the exclusive right to use. Today, the trademark is transferred to Great Wall Motors, apparently because of Great Wall Motors' WEY brand.
For a time, the friendship between the chairmen of the two companies, Wang Chuanfu and Wei Jianjun, was rumored to be a good story in the automotive industry.
In fact, this is not necessarily a unilateral gesture of favor by BYD. Bangning Studio inquired that shortly after receiving the "Wei" trademark, Great Wall Motors transferred its registered trademark "Landing Ship" on November 2, 2021. It is not clear who the transferee is, but it should be BYD, which is building a series of warship models.
It is inferred from this that Great Wall Motors and BYD are likely to be exchanging trademarks for new brands or new model names under their respective umbrellas.
The year 2021, which is about to pass, can be called the year of the explosion of car brands and model names, and some new car brands and model names have sprung up like mushrooms, and their speed and number are dizzying. The user thinking and legal matters involved behind it are worth amplifying and exploring.
01
It's not just the name that comes alive
In 2012, BYD launched the first work of the Dynasty series - Qin.
With this, BYD has successively launched Tang, Song, Yuan, Han and other dynastic models, with the overall power of the series, surpassing the influence of any single interesting model name in the history of the automobile industry, so that the dull car brand and model name began to be active and vivid.
However, in the period since then, few car companies have followed suit. Until the year 2020, which has changed dramatically, the dullness has been broken again.
On June 10 last year, Haval voted through the Internet to elect the word "big dog" as the name of the new model. Since then, Chinese auto manufacturers seem to have mastered the traffic code, and the public's decision to entertain car brands and car names has become a fashionable industry, and it is increasingly interesting and personalized.
After combing through the studio, it was found that these interesting personality names can be divided into 4 categories: animals, weapons, traditional culture and Westernization.
As can be seen from the above table, the names of animals are the most used and are most popular with automobile companies.
The practice of naming brands or models by animal names has a long history in the foreign automotive industry, such as Volkswagen's Beetle, Ford's Mustang, etc., and many of these animal name models have become classics, with a large number of fans around the world.
Now, it is the turn of the Chinese market, where big dogs, good cats, red rabbits, dolphins, ants and other animals are running all over the Chinese automotive industry.
The name is a culture, and culture comes from life.
The reason why many automobile companies like to name animals is because animals are closer to the lives of consumers, and taking their names is easy to resonate with consumers. Moreover, people are familiar with the shape and habits of some animals, and at the moment when biomimicry design is popular, naming brands or models after animal names can give car products a sense of life and make cold machines as vivid as animals.
Weapon class names are also popular.
In 2019, the "Great Wall Cannon" pickup truck became popular. Immediately after, the tank 300, which is also from Great Wall Motors, is difficult to find, inadvertently driving the name of the weapon model to be extremely hot.
By 2021, the Great Wall Gun will spawn more shell models such as black bombs, muskets, and dragon shells; the pre-sale of the Tank 500 is even worse than the Tank 300 a year ago. BYD has also joined the "battle", its destroyer 05 model has been unveiled, and a huge warship family model has been planned later.
In the history of the automobile industry, the use of weapons as a car trademark is rare, the most representative of which is Toyota's Land Cruiser (later renamed land cruiser). Militarily, a cruiser is a large surface vessel with the versatility to deal with multiple combat objectives at the same time and to perform multiple missions. The large, highly passable Toyota "Land Cruiser" model coincides with this concept, making it enough to be called a cruiser on land.
Similarly, Great Wall Motors' "gun" system and tank brand are defined as hardcore attributes, and they basically live up to their name.
Traditional culture is also widely used in the car circle.
Previously, BYD successfully launched a series of models named after various dynasties in Chinese history, invisibly endorsing the names of traditional Chinese culture.
Nowadays, Jietu Automobile also deeply cultivates traditional Chinese culture and eats the meals left by the ancestors. They took inspiration from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" of the four masterpieces, and successively launched the X70 PLUS Zhuge (Liang) version, X90 (Zhao) Zilong version, and also applied for the registration of trademarks such as Sima Da, Zhongda, Chibi, cao Cao, etc., to reserve the names of the models to be launched in the next step.
Not only that, Jietu Automobile also drew elements from "Journey to the West" and applied for the registration of trademarks such as Sun Xinger, Sha Monk, and Eight Precepts, which is quite meaningful to carry forward traditional Chinese culture. However, it is difficult to imagine what the sand monk and the eight precepts model will look like.
In contrast, manufacturers such as Great Wall Motors are focusing on the concept of Westernization.
Taking WeY, a high-end brand of Great Wall Motors, as an example, the new coffee series models have been released in three models, including Mocha, Latte, and Macchiato. In addition, the WEY brand has also applied for disco, saxophone, tango, semba, bass, rock, hip hop and other trademarks with the nature of Western music and art as a backup name.
It is reasonable to say that among Chinese automobile companies, the name "Great Wall" has the most Chinese culture, but the new brands and new model names of Great Wall Motors are very Westernized, and they have adopted imported words to take "foreign names", which is understood as a combination of Chinese and Western.
In addition, some online words have also been registered as trademark applications by automobile manufacturers. For example, the Great Wall has submitted an application to register Internet celebrity words such as Haoheng, Lao Tie, Lahong, and Shutan. However, there is no clear production landing plan for these name models.
02
You can be entertained, but you have to register first
Giving new brands and models a good name is not easy.
SAIC Volkswagen Skoda once launched "Yeti", and many people think that the name is "contrary to the sense of conformity". The car was domestically produced in September 2013 and discontinued in December 2017, surviving for only four years and three months. Because its Chinese has a "wild" word, SAIC Volkswagen Skoda once invited "Ancient Puzzle Boy" to endorse it, but the name model is still unable to escape the fate of death. Of course, it's not all about the name.
It is difficult to take a name, and the car manufacturers have opened their minds and come up with a trick in recent years - to give the name decision to the public. This is both in line with the interaction needs of the Web 4.0 era and gives model names room for brainstorming.
In the Web4.0 era, the public pays more attention to the realization of personal value, and the requirements for personalized needs and symbolic values exceed the use value of goods or services. Auto companies have invested in their favor, and customized marketing, word-of-mouth communication, and accurate push have become fashionable moves at present. Moreover, it is often true that popular decision-making can come up with the least costly and emotionally resonant solution.
The Big Haval dog is a typical example.
The word "big dog" was successfully elected with more than 1 times the number of votes of the second place. One of the voters left a message online: "The current car name is either the Starry Sky Universe or the Celestial Beast." I only hope that it is a loyal dog of mine, which can accompany me in chai rice oil and salt, can also accompany me to poetry and far away, can accompany me to cool trends, and can also accompany me to occasionally spread wilderness, which is what a car should look like. ”
Through the loyal and wild nature of the cultural matrix of the big dog, the Haval big dog model advocates a life attitude of respecting the self and not blindly following, which has aroused the emotional resonance of young people to highlight their self-worth. At the same time, the memory cost of the word "big dog" tends to be close to zero, which brings great convenience to the subsequent marketing of the model.
Inspired by the big dog, in 2021, the auto manufacturer group followed suit, and organized an online audition vote for the new model name.
Some people are partying about it, some people are shaking their heads, and each has their own reasons.
People who revel in revelry are mostly happy that they have the opportunity to participate and speak out, even if it is a small vote.
People who shake their heads believe that the high frequency of model names carries the image, culture, reputation, word of mouth and other cultural and values of the enterprise, and the automobile is an important pillar industry of the national economy, and the car company should assume the social responsibility of cultural guidance, and its model name should have connotation and taste, and cannot only seek superficial liveliness. They fear "entertaining to death."
People who shake their heads also believe that the car name audition is too entertaining, and the results of the election are not necessarily good, "just look at the last two presidents elected by the United States."
This view was immediately refuted by the carnivalists: If there is no audition, how can Supergirls have a chance to become famous? Where the public has the opportunity to enjoy a new culture...
There is no right or wrong in all of the above, only different differences. What needs to be reminded of is that the name of the product or service is a private right. However, once it is too disorderly and deviates from the main social route, the public power of the state will intervene. In 2019, multiple departments of the state jointly rectified the irregular real estate names, focusing on the "big, foreign, strange and heavy" problems such as mysterious, deliberately exaggerated, grotesque and bizarre, admiring the foreign and charming, and irregular use of words.
Regardless of the outside controversy, within the automotive company, it is indeed a very tricky thing to do about the naming of models.
Because the joint venture is an imported model, the common practice is to sinicize its English name and take a Chinese name. Chinese brands have a new name for the new model. However, whether Chinese or foreign, "model naming does not only consider market dissemination," the head of the marketing department of an OEM told Bangning Studio, "the first thing to consider is actually a legal issue." ”
If the model name is to be used legally and there is no infringement dispute, it must apply for trademark registration and obtain the exclusive right to use the trademark. According to the Table of Distinctions Between Similar Goods and Services, cars are in Category 12. "The automotive industry is a hot topic, and there are too many registered names." The head of a trademark agency said, "Any combination of two words you can think of is basically something that people have long thought of and registered, not to mention those who preemptively register in bad faith." ”
In reality, this is indeed the case. Many car companies have worked hard and after countless discussions, they have finally formulated a favorite name, but often after applying for registration at the Trademark Office, they receive the "Notice of Rejection" within one or two months - a similar name has been registered.
In desperation, auto manufacturers have to find another way to take a safer and more feasible route, such as animals, weapons, traditional culture, Western elements and other directions. On those routes, the probability of being registered is much lower.
The ordinary road is not to not walk, but it is not good to walk. This is the main reason why some car brands and models have new names that are surprising.
In an interview with Bangning Studio, some experts suggested that auto companies "should trademark new brands or new models first." At present, from the application for registration to the acquisition of the trademark registration certificate, even if everything goes well, it will take 6 months, and the market is not waiting for people, so we should try to register the name in advance. "At the beginning of planning and developing the model, it should be planned together with the name, prepared in advance, and applied for registration at the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, and after obtaining the registration certificate, it can be disseminated." The expert noted.
Just last month, an emerging car-making force held a media briefing in Beijing to introduce the proposed models. Bangning Studio reminded the company because it was working on the topic of writing the name of the car. After the latter's rapid inquiry, he was shocked to find that his name had been registered as a trademark in Class 12 – and doing so would lead to infringement legal disputes. The company had to suspend the dissemination and find ways to contact the trademark holder to see if the transfer could be negotiated. At the same time, a new name will be re-proposed, and then an application for a registered trademark will be used as an alternative... The lessons are profound.
After all, most people don't have the friendship, or luck, that Wang Chuanfu and Wei Jianjun have.