Study On The Registration Requirements Of Sound Mark

In business activities, business operators generally use a brand name, logo or sign on goods or services to convey the information like the origin and the quality of the goods or services to the consumer. The brand name, logo and sign used by the business operators are the traditional trademarks. Now, an updated and innovative content has appeared in the field of trademark —— sound mark. According to what the World Intellectual Property Organization defines about the sound mark, a sound mark may consist of musical sound, either pre-existing or specially commissioned for the purposes of trademark registration, and may also consist of non-musical sounds like animal sounds or sounds produced by meteorological or geographical features. From the perspective of the legal foundation of trademark, sound can be registered as trademarks, and in some developed countries and regions sound mark has been written into the trademark law. For example, Australia included sound as a kind of trademark in the trademark law revised in 1978; Over the same period, and sometime after, the European Union and the United States also allowed sound trademark to be registered as a trademark; Hong Kong also expanded the scope of trademarks which can be registered, to three-dimensional signs, sounds and smells and their combinations in 2003 when the trade marks ordinance was revised. Since 1990 s, to register nontraditional trademarks like sound has become an international trend. Though the ways to protect sound marks vary in different countries and regions, it’s true that sound marks can be registered in those countries and regions. In 2013, through revision of the trademark law, the protection of sound marks was written into relevant provisions in China. Though it hasn’t been long since sound marks have been protected by the trademark law, there will be more and more business operators using sound mark in their business activities, which conforms to the popular trend of sound mark worldwide.One of the purposes of trademark law is to prevent consumers’ confusion about the source of goods or services, which can reduce market transaction costs. As protected by trademark law, sound mark cannot violate the principle of trademark law or cause confusion to consumers. In China, a sound mark shall be registered before it can be protected by trademark law. Only if the sound meets all the registration requirements, it can be seen as a qualified trademark. Same as the traditional trademark, the registration requirements of sound mark include substantial requirements and procedural requirements. The substantial requirements refer to the requirement of distinctiveness and nonfunctional, which is essential to register a trademark. The procedural requirements refer to the written or non-written materials submitted by the applicant when a sound mark is applied to be registered as a trademark.Given that the protection of sound mark in our country starts late, the related requirements of sound mark registration is not clear or practical yet, therefore, it’s rather important to do special study on trademark registration requirements for sound mark. After searching for the relevant materials about study on the registration requirements for sound mark, I found that there weren’t much literature on this special topic. Thus this paper is intended to study on sound mark specializing in trademark registration requirements to make up for the shortage of previous studies, in order to provide certain theoretical reference for the sound mark registration in China. Due to the difference from the traditional trademark, the registration requirements of sound mark should also be different. But the existing trademark law does not treat sound mark differently, which makes particularity of sound mark cannot be reflected. The existing trademark registration requirements appear too general for sound mark, so how to embody registration requirements of the sound mark will be very difficult.Apart from the introduction genre and the conclusion at the end, this paper contains four parts.Chapter one:the Necessity of Studying the Registration Requirements of Sound Mark. First, this chapter introduces the definition of sound mark and the differences between sound mark and traditional trademark, sound mark and other nontraditional trademark. Second, this chapter states the current laws and regulations about the registration of sound mark, which implies the deficiency of relevant sound mark laws and regulations.Chapter two:the Comparative Study of the Registration Requirements of Sound Mark. This chapter discusses the registration requirements of sound mark in other countries and regions like America and Europe Union and summarizes the characteristics of the registration requirements of sound mark in each country or region, which makes the theoretical foundation for the suggestion below about improving the registration requirements of sound mark in ChinaChapter three:Analysis of Several Special Problems regarding the Registration Requirements of Sound Mark. This chapter answers questions such as “does the length of the sound affect the distinctiveness of sound mark”, “can functional sound be registered as a trademark after acquiring the second meaning”, “can advertising slogan be registered as a trademark”.Chapter four:Suggestions about Improving the Registration Requirements of Sound Mark. This chapter puts forward several suggestion about relevant laws and regulations, such as making detailed provisions about the substantial requirements of sound mark registration, specifying the procedural requirements of sound mark registration, setting out review standards of sound mark registration and so on.