It is believed that quite a number of trademark agents or enterprises have more or less encountered the case that the pure Chinese trademarks applied for the registration in Vietnam were rejected due to the lack of significance. The official grounds for the rejection in Vietnam are consumers in Vietnam could not recognize Chinese characters, similar to the situations that we could not read Arabic, Korean and Thailand languages, consumers only can recognize the country of the language, however, cannot understand the meaning of the characters well, as a result, consumers cannot recognize the brand via the mark logo, furthermore, the trademark has lost the function to distinguish sources of goods or services. 

We could see a number of cases regarding the rejection of application for trademarks in pure Chinese characters via WIPO’s Monitor, i.e. “华为（in pinyin Hua Wei）” (IR No. 1476919), “吴裕泰(in pinyin Wu Yutai)” (IR No. 1316440), “便宜坊(in pinyin Bian Yifang)” (IR No. 972318), “恰恰 (in pinyin Qia Qia)” (IR No. 919497), “恒大 (in pinyin Heng Da)” (IR No. 1245035). 

How to avoid the rejection posed by the lack of significance prior to the application? Generally, significant elements will be added to the pure Chinese trademark, i.e. design, English (or Pinyin). Cases below are some samples for successful registration: 

(1)Add significant designs and pinyin.

Designs in samples above have strong significance, furthermore, the significance of pinyin and English characters are stronger, then, the registrations have been approved smoothly. 

(2)Only add significant designs

The design in the first sample has strong significance, “缘 (Yuan in Pinyin)” in the second sample has been made artistic design, both them have been registered smoothly. For the third sample, from our view of point, the design of cloud is more common and has less significant. However, this trademark has been successfully registered because examiners in Vietnam may have their different recognition or considerations.

(3) Only add significant Pinyin

From the samples above, Pinyin / English characters in the samples have strong significant, thus, all registrations have been approved smoothly. 

Followings are negative samples: 

The circles outside Chinese characters/ background design are too weak, as a result, registrations have been rejected due to the lack of significance. 

2) Comparing above 2 trademarks,  , , the angles of designs are similar, however, the trademark have been rejected, the 2 samples above have been registered smoothly. My individual opinion is that different examiner’s subjectivity may contribute to inconsistent results of examination. 

3)

Although the last Chinese character “牛 (Niu in Pinyin) has been made artistic design, the increase of significance is limited, as a result, the registration has been rejected due to the lack of the significance. 

If the trademark was rejected in Vietnam due to the lack of significance, the common coping method is to offer a number of evidence of use of the trademark in Vietnam, as well as the registration information in other countries, in order to prove the trademark has obtained reputation and has the function to recognize the source of goods and service because of long-term and extensive use. For the evidence of use, general advice is offered within the past 3-5 years. For the trademark, except for photos of the goods, the goods’ instruction, import and exporting bill, packing lists, sales contract and invoice are advised to be offered, for the purpose to show a completed chain of evidence to the officer. For the service trademark, except for the photos of service location, leaflets, quotations, contracts and invoices also to be advised to offer, also, hope to show a completed chain of evidence to the officer. For the quantities of the evidence of use, it is better that to offer 2-3 pieces of evidence for each category for each year. Except for the evidence of actual use, also, please offer the source of brand, history, value, annual sale amounts, annual advertising cost and other instructions of expenses in writing as much as possible. 

If the trademark was rejected due to the lack of significance, moreover, large quantities pieces of evidence and registration information in other countries could not be offered currently, please don’t lose heart, to adhere to the standard use, and pay attention to keep the evidence of use, and to consider filing the application in the proper time.