When starting business, or establishing a business, the factor for customers to care about and remember the business’s brand is the logo, the trademark of the products that the business does business and produces. Especially for the food market, a different and bright brand will make an impression on consumers; Therefore, trademark registration for food is very important. In the article below, Lawyer X will share with readers the current procedure for registering a food brand. Hope this article brings a lot of useful things to you.
Legal grounds
- Consolidated document 07/VBHN-VPQH 2019
Conditions for registering a food brand?
According to the regulations, in order to be granted the protection title by a state agency, the following conditions must first be met:
First, it must be a visible sign in the form of letters, words, drawings, images, including holograms, or a combination thereof, represented by one or more colors. This condition is understood that the brand must be perceived and felt by the human eye, not the invisible through looking at and observing the goods label and seeing the brand of that goods in order to distinguish between them. differentiated from other goods and services.
Or it can be understood that the brand must exist in the form of a certain material so that people can see it. For this to happen, a brand must exist in the form of words, images, drawings or a combination of the above and be represented by one or more colors.
For example, a brand in written form like the brand Pepsi soft drink is the words Pepsi with white on a blue background
Although it is a visible trademark, the law provides that such a sign is not protected in the name of a trademark when it falls into one of the following cases:
Signs identical or confusingly similar to national flags and emblems of other countries;
Signs identical or confusingly similar to symbols, flags, badges, abbreviations and full names of state agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations or political organizations socio-professional, social organizations, socio-professional organizations of Vietnam and international organizations, without the permission of such agency or organization;
Signs identical or confusingly similar to real names, nicknames, pseudonyms, images of leaders, national heroes, and celebrities of Vietnam or abroad;
Signs identical or confusingly similar to certification marks, inspection marks, or warranty marks of an international organization that such organization requests may not be used, unless this organization itself registers the products, such mark as a certification mark;
Signs that mislead, confuse or deceive consumers about the origin, features, uses, quality, value or other characteristics of goods or services.
Second, that brand must be able to distinguish the services and goods of the brand owner from the services and goods of other subjects. A brand is considered distinctive if it is made up of one or more recognizable and memorable elements, or from many elements that combine to form a recognizable and memorable whole that is not part of the cases in Clause 2, Article 74 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005 as amended and supplemented in 2009 and 2019.
Dossier for registration of food trademark protection?
When there is a need to register a trademark, the first thing to do is to prepare a set of documents according to the following instructions:
Trademark registration application according to the form in the Appendix issued under Circular No. 16/2016/TT-BKHCN;
Sample of the trademark intended to be registered;
Proof of ownership;
Papers proving registration priority, if any;
Authorization letter, when authorizing individuals to submit dossiers and receive results;
Proof of payment of fees and charges for industrial property registration;
Papers and other documents as prescribed by law.
How to register a food brand?
Step 1: Look up, evaluate the ability to protect the trademark before registration
The search and assessment of the possibility of protection is not a mandatory requirement before submitting an application for trademark protection. However, the benefits of trademark search before filing a trademark protection application are very large, specifically:
Helping businesses to be proactive in building business plans: Because the search and assessment of the protectionability of a brand usually takes only 3-4 days and after having the results of the search and evaluation, it will help businesses be more proactive in building production and business plans if the brand has the ability to distinguish and not coincide with other brands.
Help businesses reduce financial risks: Usually, many businesses, after applying for trademark protection, will print product packaging labels, promote product brands… This is not a small expense for every business. But all of these products cannot be used if the registered trademark is identical or confusingly similar to someone else’s protected trademark. In addition, the costs of filing a trademark protection application will not be refunded in case the application is refused protection by the NOIP because the trademark does not meet the protection conditions under the Department of Intellectual Property Law. intellectual property.
Step 2: Submit a Food Trademark Application
After preparing a complete dossier, the Applicant can directly or authorize a representative to apply for trademark protection at the National Office of Intellectual Property.
Step 3: Verify the application form
The NOIP will evaluate the validity of the trademark application. Formal examination time is 30 days from the date of application.
If the application meets the requirements on form such as: The NOIP issues a decision to accept the valid application.
If the trademark registration application has errors: The Department will issue a Notice of Intention to Reject and request that the shortcomings be rectified.
Step 4: Publish the application for trademark registration:
The trademark registration application, if approved properly in form, will be published by the National Office of Intellectual Property in the Industrial Property Official Gazette within 2 months. From the time of publication, the third party will know information about the trademark registration application and have the right to have objections and submit it to the National Office of Intellectual Property for consideration.
Step 5: Assess the content of the trademark registration application:
This is the National Office of Intellectual Property’s consideration and assessment of whether the trademark is protectable or not based on the protection conditions.
The time limit for substantive examination of a trademark registration application is 9 months from the date of publication of the application. At the end of the substantive examination, NOIP will issue a Notice of Intent to grant a protection title and a notice of payment of fees for granting a title or a Notice of Intention to refuse to grant a Protection Title. The applicant has the right to submit a written opinion to the NOIP for consideration of its intention to refuse and exercise the right to complain after the NOIP issues a decision on refusal to grant a trademark protection title.
Step 6: Pay the fee for granting a protection title or lodge a complaint against the NOIP’s decision on refusal to grant a protection title (if there are grounds)
After receiving the Notice of Intent to grant a protection title and paying the fee for granting a trademark protection title, the Applicant can directly pay or authorize the payment of the fee for the grant of a trademark. After 30 days from the date of fee payment, the NOIP will issue a protection title.
Related articles
- Regulations on collective trademarks under Vietnamese Law
- Reasons for trademark registration in Vietnam
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Frequently asked questions
Trademark registration for food means that an organization or individual submits a trademark application for a certain food product line to a competent state agency, specifically here, the National Office of Intellectual Property to carry out the work. consider and grant a Certificate of Protection to that food brand.
According to the provisions of Clause 6, Article 93 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, the term of a certificate of receipt for trademark registration is as follows: A certificate of trademark registration is valid from the date of grant to the end of ten years from the date of registration. application, renewable for several consecutive years, for ten years each.
Conclusion: So the above is Procedures for trademark registration in Vietnam. Hopefully with this article can help you in life, please always follow and read our good articles on the website: lsxlawfirm.com
