With respect to the assignment of a trademark, it means that the holder of a trademark assigns the trademark to another party within the period of validity of the registered trademark according to the legal procedures. In generally, assignment of a trademark is the change of the owner of the registered trademark, namely, it is a way of obtaining the trademark right.
 

To be specified, there are commonly three ways to transfer the trademark right from the holder to another party:

1）To assign the trademark right by an assignment contract, i.e. the owner of a trademark assigns the registered mark by signing an assignment contract with the assignee;

2) To assign the trademark right by inheritance;

3) To assign the trademark right by executive order.

 

2.What is the advantage of trademark assignment?
 

As what we said before, trademark assignment is a way of obtaining the trademark right, but we also can obtain a trademark right by filing a trademark registration application before the Trademark Office. And generally, the cost of filing a trademark registration application is lower than the cost of obtaining a trademark right by assignment. Now that being so, why do so many enterprises or individual want to obtain a trademark right by assignment? That is because the trademark assignment has the following advantages:
 

(1) In the aspect of time, the time spends on assignment procedure is much shorter than registration procedure. Commonly, it will take about a year to get the trademark approved by the China Trademark Office via the way of filing a trademark registration application. Whereas, it just needs about six months to get a trademark right by trademark assignment.
 

On this view, the assignment of a trademark can save the cost of time. As we all known, in the society, time is money, time is business opportunity, it will be a huge time superiority for the enterprise by buying a trademark.
 

(2)In the aspect of successful rate, the successful rate of assignment is much higher than registration, With regard to the trademark registration, it may be refused by the China Trademark Office for the reason of being same or similar to the prior registered trademark. Thus there is a certain risk of failure of filing a trademark registration application. However, the trademark which is used to assignment must be a registered trademark; so the above mentioned risk of failure of registration of a trademark would not exist. As long as the assignment of a trademark is proceed in accordance with the legal procedures, in most cases, the China Trademark Office will approve the assignment of a trademark.
 

Thus, it can be seen that trademark assignment can reduce the risk of obtaining a trademark, and make the enterprise enter the process of grant as soon as possible.
 

(3)In the aspect of the value of trademark, usually, the trademarks which are easy to remember and spread and of significance have been registered by others, it will be difficult for the enterprise to apply a good trademark. If an enterprise wants a good trademark which is satisfied the corporate image and easy to memorize and spread, buying a trademark from the owner of the trademark will be a good choice.

 

3.What is the essential procedure of trademark assignment?
 

As what I have mentioned before, there are three ways of trademark assignment. No matter by which way the assignment of trademark occurred, the assignor and the assignee should go to the Trademark Office to go through the corresponding formalities of assignment. To specified that the trademark assignment must be approved by the China Trademark Office. If the assignor and the assignee don’t go to the China Trademark Office to go through the corresponding formalities of assignment and get the approval of the China Trademark Office, the trademark cannot be assigned from the owner to the other party.

 

4.How long it will take to go through the formalities of trademark assignment?
 

In general, it will take about 6 months to 10 months from filing an application for trademark assignment to getting the certificate of approval of trademark assignment issued by the China Trademark Office.

 

5.What is the required document for assignment of a trademark?
 

Hereby, we mainly introduce the required document for assignment of a trademark by a contract. The required documents are as follows:
 

(1) The trademark assignment of contract;
 

(2) The identified document (scanned copy is enough) of both assignor and assignee;
 

(3) The Power of Attorney.