Economic Observer reporter Wang Shuaiguo Recently, a batch of trademarks related to tank cars applied for by Great Wall Motors are invalid, which has aroused widespread concern from the outside world. The trademarks applied for by Great Wall Motors such as Tank Wey, Tank 400, Tank 500 and Tank 600 are all in the state of trademark invalidation, while the current trademark status of Tank 300 is in the process of rejection and review.
On October 21, an insider of Tank Auto told the Economic Observer: "At present, the tank series trademark applied by Great Wall Motors is being applied for, and the relevant work is being promoted in an orderly manner. However, the person did not reply to why Great Wall Motors did not apply for the "tank tank" trademark.
According to the reporter's understanding, the tank brand is a brand new brand that Great Wall Motors only came out of in April this year, and the brand mainly focuses on light luxury hardcore off-road. The earliest tank belonged to the Wey brand, derived from a car Wey Tank 300. Later, because of the hot sales of the car, Great Wall separated the tank from the wey brand as a full range of categories for its entry into the hardcore off-road market.
However, when many models encounter problems with trademark registration, what kind of impact will the future development of tanks face?
Why the trademark registration was unsuccessful
The information inquired by the Economic Observer reporter from the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter referred to as the "Trademark Office") shows that there is no Great Wall Motor among the applicants for the "Tank Tank" trademark. In addition, as the only applicant for the "tank car" trademark, Great Wall Motor's trademark application class is not the 12th class (vehicles, land, air and sea carriers) in the international classification, but the 9th class (science, navigation, geodesy, photography, etc.) and 35 (advertising, industrial management, industrial management, office affairs) that are not closely related to the automotive industry.
Among the three "Tank 400" trademarks applied for by Great Wall Motor, the international classification of Class 37 (house construction, repair, installation services) has been successfully registered, and Class 12 and Class 35 are invalid; among the three "Tank 500" trademarks applied for, the trademark status of the international classification as Class 37 is "Refusal review", And Class 12 and Class 35 are invalid; among the 6 "Tank 600" trademarks applied, the international classification is Class 37 has been successfully registered. Two Class 12 (different designs) and 1 Class 35 trademark status is "Refusal for Review", and 1 Class 25 (clothing, shoes, hats) has a trademark status of "Pending Substantive Review".
Judging from the results of the query, Great Wall Motors has not completely obtained any tank series trademarks. However, of the several trademarks mentioned above, only Class 37 (including land machinery vehicle repairs) that have been registered and are relevant to the automotive industry is the only one.
As for the reasons why some of the trademarks of the tank car series have not been successfully registered, Zhang Xiaorong, president of the DeepIn Science and Technology Research Institute, said: "It should be because the trademark lacks distinctiveness, that is, the word tank cannot be effectively distinguished in the industry, just as words such as aircraft cannon tractors are not suitable for trademarks." ”
It is worth noting that after the launch of the Tank 300 at the end of last year, a company and a natural person applied for the trademark of tank 300 in May this year, but the classification is not class 12. At present, the trademark status applied for by the above two applicants is "awaiting substantive examination". In other words, the tank 300 trademark has been preemptively registered by others.
In this regard, An Guangyong, an expert of the Credit Management Committee of the All-Union Mergers and Acquisitions Association, told reporters: "A successful trademark can play a role in adding wings to the enterprise, and can well represent the characteristics, characteristics, image, and even corporate culture of enterprises and products. For Great Wall Motors, if the (tank car series trademark) is successfully preemptively registered by others, and the successful enterprises are not willing to transfer (that is, the money is not even), then it means that Great Wall Motors' previous marketing efforts may have to be wasted. ”
Tank independence will be hindered?
As a car positioned as a smart luxury off-road SUV, the Tank 300 quickly became popular after its launch last year. According to the automotive industry, tanks have created a new consumer market, because the tank 300 is only about 200,000 yuan, lowering the threshold for those who want to experience off-road fun but their own economic strength is insufficient. Compared with other competitors in the industry, Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz are imported cars, and consumers have to pay a higher price to own.
Sales figures illustrate how popular the tank brand is. According to the sales data released by Great Wall Motors, 8,021 tanks were sold in September 300, setting a new monthly sales volume of 300 tanks, and in the first three quarters, the cumulative sales volume of the tank brand was 52,572.
The tank brand has only been independent for half a year, but the brand has a fast pace of launching new products. Previously, the tank planned a variety of products such as tank 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 and so on. At the Chengdu Auto Show held at the end of August this year, the tank 400 and tank 500 cars ushered in their first appearance, which attracted a large number of off-road enthusiasts at that time.
From the perspective of the entire Great Wall Motor, in recent years, great wall motor has developed by leaps and bounds, with annual sales of more than one million vehicles, becoming one of the leading independent car companies. Industry analysis believes that a major reason behind this lies in the multi-brand development of the Great Wall, and at present, Great Wall Motors already has six major brand systems of Haval, Wey, Tank, Gun, Euler and Salon.
In addition, in terms of brand marketing, Great Wall has opened up a unique "category marketing" in the industry. According to the great wall's planning, the Great Wall Haval brand mainly attacks the SUV market; the Euler brand focuses on electric vehicles and tends to female consumers; the cannon brand focuses on the pickup truck market; the wey brand takes the light luxury fashion style and plans to return to the car field in the future; and the tank brand aims at the hardcore off-road vehicle market. The future salon brand will focus on the high-end smart pure electric market.
Among the many brands of Great Wall Motors, the tank brand is regarded as a "fist" brand to build, and the tank represents the new height of luxury and off-road of Great Wall Motors in the field of SUVs. Surprisingly, however, the tank brand has some minor problems with the trademark issue. This has sparked concerns about the prospect of independence for tank brands.
From the perspective of the automotive industry, the independence of a brand includes multiple levels such as name independence, image independence, operation system and marketing system independence. However, at present, tank brand models are still sold in the same store as the wey brand sales store. As a result, some industry views point out that the pace of independence of tank brands is slow, and after independence, it may encounter obstacles due to trademark issues.
At the same time, there are people who have different views. Zhang Xiaorong said: "Without registering trademarks, enterprises can continue to use tank brands. In today's legal environment, it is difficult for other enterprises to preemptively register, although there is no protection from the Trademark Law, but it can also be protected by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. ”
The problem of the tank registration trademark does not mean that Great Wall Motors has no room for maneuver. Song Jingyi, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, believes that if the trademark is preemptively registered in bad faith, Great Wall Motors may face the following dilemmas: the existence of preemptively registered trademarks may constitute an obstacle to Great Wall Motors' trademark registration on identical or similar trademarks in the same or similar goods/services, and its own trademarks may not be approved for registration, so that the use of trademarks is restricted, and even the trademark or brand name has to be changed; the bad faith registration is mostly a small company or individual that clings to the popularity of Great Wall Company, which is easy to cause confusion in public perception. Damage the commercial reputation of the Great Wall, thereby weakening the brand recognition of the prior rights holders.
Lawyer Song Jingyi further stated that for the act of bad faith preemptive registration, Great Wall Motors, as the prior right holder, has the following legal remedies: pay attention to the application status of the relevant trademark in a timely manner, if it has not been approved for registration, it can file an opposition in a timely manner at the stage of trademark announcement to avoid being approved for registration, and if the trademark has been registered, it can request the Trademark Office to make a decision to cancel or declare invalid the disputed trademark on the grounds that others have preemptively registered in bad faith by improper means to damage the prior rights of the Great Wall Company.