The "national prefix" enterprise cross-border coffee, but the trademark was rejected.

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Recently, China Post, which is preparing to show its skills in the coffee industry, has encountered "big trouble" in trademark registration. According to SkyEye, China Post Group registered a number of "Post Office Coffee POST COFFEE" in early April this year, with international classifications involving 20, 21, 29, 30, etc., but all showed a notice of rejection.

China Post may not have thought that its own registration of post office coffee could be rejected one day. Although the reason for the rejection is not shown, however, trademarks are usually rejected for several reasons: the trademark has been registered by others, the trademark is similar, the infringement of the "prior rights" of others, and the violation of absolute / relative prohibitions, and the use of generic words in the trademark.

Zhongyu Cafe, which cooperates with China Post to open post office coffee, applied for registration of several similar trademarks such as "Post Office Coffee", "Postal Coffee" and "POSTE COFFEE" after the Post Group applied for "Post Office Coffee POST COFFEE", but withdrew all applications within a few days. At present, similar trademarks such as "Post Office Coffee" and "Postal Coffee" have not been registered.

Therefore, the rejection of China Post's application for "Post Office Coffee POST COFFEE" may be due to the suspicion that both "Post Office" and "Coffee" in the trademark have universal rankings. If the universal ranking is monopolized by one company, it is a violation of the Trademark Law, so it is difficult to register as a trademark whether it is "Postal Coffee", "Coffee Post", "Post Office Coffee" or "Coffee Post Office".

Another possibility is that the Trademark Law pays attention to salient features, because the words "post" and "post office" are all associated with the same thing, so there is a lack of significant features if used in catering service providers / food products.

So, does this rejection mean that there is no chance to register as a trademark after "Post Office Coffee"? If China Post submits a review to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board within 15 days of receiving the notice of trademark rejection, then there is still a chance to register the trademark.

According to Tianyan check, there is no mention of China Post Group's application for review in the trademark registration process of "Post Office Coffee POST COFFEE" for the time being. If the trademark is not submitted for review for more than 15 days, it is unlikely that the trademark will be submitted for registration again. If the trademark is submitted for review, it will take 6-9 months to know the result of the review.

For this rejection, many netizens left messages saying that if the trademark registration is really unsuccessful, then what will happen to the post office coffee business? In fact, whether the trademark is registered successfully or not does not affect the operation of the brand store, but the brand name does not have independent use power, other people can also use the same name.

In February this year, when China Post opened its own chain post office coffee shop in Xiamen International Trade Tower, China Post officially said that the country's first post office coffee shop opened in Xiamen International Trade Building.

But as soon as these words came out, some netizens immediately said that before the store opened, there were already "post office coffee" on similar themes in Shapowei, Xiamen, near the Wukang Building in Shanghai, and Zhongshan in Guangdong Province. Then Xiamen Post said on the official account that they would reserve the right to investigate their relevant legal liability to any unit and individual that did not authorize "post office coffee".

At the same time, Zhongshan Philatelic, another official account certified as the Zhongshan branch of China Post, issued another statement, saying: "Post Coffee Post Office Coffee" is the only coffee-themed post office authorized by the Zhongshan branch of China Post Group Co., Ltd. " It is confirmed that there is also an authorized "post office coffee" in the area, which opened in December last year.

All of a sudden, who is the first post office coffee of "China Post", whether it can join or not seems to be a more confusing dispute. Miss he of Zhongshan Post Branch explained that the Chinese Post public's claim that "Xiamen Post Office Coffee is the first" refers to "the first coffee shop opened in the postal business hall." the outside world misunderstands this expression, which is caused by the lack of rigorous explanation of the words used in the relevant news bulletins.

Photo Source: Internet