Differences between a trademark and a trade name registered with SSM

Transcript:

I have registered my company name via SSM. Do I still need to register a TM?

First of all, they are NOT The Same – they are 2 totally different things:

1. Company Name = simply the official name you use to identify your entity for taxes and contracts. SSM follows basic guidelines. As long as the name is not identical to an existing company name and follows correct grammar and spelling, they will usually allow the registration. Even if you think that another company’s name is similar to yours and might cause confusion, you cannot object to it.

   
   

2. Trademark – as I mentioned in the previous reel, protects your logos, slogans, and brand names in the marketplace. It is to prevent competitors from pretending that they provide your products or services.

Here’s the big difference: You have one company name, but you can own hundreds of trademarks for different products and services under that one entity.

Registering a Trade Name with the government does not give you the exclusive right to use that name on products; that means very likely you cannot sue the person who uses your trade name on their products. And that is different for a trademark, where you have the exclusive right over it, and you can sue the persons who use it without your consent.

华文（AI 翻译）：

我已经通过 SSM 注册了我的公司名称。我还需要注册商标吗？

首先，它们不是同一样东西——这是两个完全不同的概念：

1. 公司名称 = 简单来说，就是你用来识别公司实体的正式名称，例如用于税务和签订合约。SSM 遵循的是基本的名称注册规则。只要你的公司名称与现有公司名称不完全相同，并且符合正确的语法和拼写，通常就可以获准注册。即使你认为另一家公司的名称与你的名称相似，可能会造成混淆，你也不能因此提出异议。

   
   

2. 商标 = 正如我在上一支 Reel 中提到的，商标保护的是你在市场上使用的标志、口号和品牌名称。它的作用是防止竞争者冒充你，声称他们提供的是你的产品或服务。

   
   

这里有一个很大的区别：你可以只有一个公司名称，但在同一个公司实体旗下，你可以拥有数百个不同产品和服务的商标。

向政府注册商号，并不会赋予你对该名称在产品上的专有使用权。这意味着，当别人未经你的同意，将你的商号使用在他们的产品上时，你很可能无法仅仅因为自己注册了该商号，就起诉对方。

而商标则不同。注册商标后，你对该商标享有专有权，并可以对未经你同意而使用该商标的人采取法律行动。