Thunder! More than 13,000 trademarks of a Shenzhen agency will be invalidated

Recently, many sellers reported that another Shenzhen trademark agency has "collapsed", and 13,000+ American standards are about to be invalidated!

It is understood that the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) has released the latest sanctions list, and more than 13,000 trademarks represented by a trademark company in Shenzhen will be subject to sanctions.

The U.S. Trademark Office listed the agency's fraudulent and illegal operations and asked them to provide a written explanation ( Show-cause). The appeal deadline is before September 21.

The list of trademarks involved this time is 115 pages long, and the time span of these trademarks is astonishing, ranging from 2010 to 2020.

The editor found that many sellers in multiple channels reported that they were unfortunately affected and were seeking ways to avoid their stores being implicated .

Some sellers suggested that they could re-register a trademark that the lawyer had no problem with, and the registration of this trademark would not be passively removed during the period of reply. At the same time, they could take the initiative to cancel the brand registration, but relocation and label change were inevitable.

There were also sellers who chose the company to register their trademarks in 2018 and finally survived the wave of account blocking, but unexpectedly encountered a landmine on the trademark.

It has to be said that this incident was a heavy blow to the sellers.

A seller did some calculations on the trademarks involved in this case: taking 13,000 trademarks as an example, with an application price of 4,000 yuan for each, the total amount of trademarks involved is as high as 52 million yuan, and this amount does not include the various costs generated by the trademarks that have already been put into use.

It is reported that the company received tens of millions of dollars in financing in August this year, but unexpectedly in September, news came out that the trademark would be sanctioned.

On September 9, the company issued a new statement regarding the trademark "thunderstorm incident", stating that this was a routine inquiry from the USPTO to Chinese trademark agencies, and not a sanction as rumored. The company also strictly abides by the law, and this inquiry will not affect customers.

Next, we can only wait for subsequent developments, and sellers should still make preparations as early as possible.

I believe everyone still remembers the Huanyi incident last year, when more than 15,000 trademarks were revoked in an instant. Last month, two trademark agents from China were sanctioned by the USPTO for forging lawyers’ signatures, and more than 350 US trademarks were revoked again.

If problems arise with an intellectual property company, there may be several reasons: the same applicant submits a large number of trademark applications in a short period of time; the same agency sees a sudden surge in applications; the company's trademark applications in the United States surge; or someone impersonates a licensed U.S. attorney and forges the attorney's signature.

It is understood that US trademark registration needs to be submitted by a US lawyer, which leads many sellers to look for agency companies because they do not have the relevant resources.

In order to attract customers, many intellectual property companies adopt free or even ultra-low-cost trademark models, but they are unaware of the huge risks hidden behind them.

If there is a problem with the seller's trademark, the store will inevitably be implicated.   

It is understood that the U.S. Trademark Office's system and Amazon's brand registration are connected in real time. Once the Trademark Office determines that a trademark is invalid, Amazon will cancel the registration. At the same time, both the trademark and the store will be blacklisted by Amazon.

The registration time for the American standard takes about 8-10 months, which is a relatively long time span. Sellers must keep their eyes open when applying for trademarks and choose compliant and formal agencies. Never take risks for the sake of temporary cheapness.

Trademark Agency

Trademark cancellation