First, the search for a listing will probably be halted. China Securities Regulatory Commission clearly stipulates in the Administrative Measures for Initial Public Offering and Listing that the issuer shall legally own the ownership or use right of trademarks related to its production and operation. The trademark loophole obviously means that New Oxygen does not meet this condition, and the situation will be more severe in the US and Hong Kong stock markets, which attach great importance to intellectual property rights.

Second, it may be difficult to get apple’s App Store back online. According to the Rules of Apple App Store, if an App is complained of trademark infringement, Apple will remove the corresponding App after investigation and evidence collection. Infringing apps will no longer be available until the ownership of the trademark is clear, and users who previously downloaded apps will no longer be able to update them. With the brewing of the trademark issue, it is possible that all the 20 million new Oxygen users that it previously announced will gradually lose contact.

Finally, there may be some losses for users and investors. First of all, for users, not being able to use the APP means that they cannot meet the normal order and information needs. For transactions that have already generated orders, users may lose some funds and delay the relevant medical treatment. For investors, new oxygen is at present no matter the business or capital market difficulties may sink investors in an unfavorable situation.

It is a dilemma, but four solutions are available

Is the so-called car to the mountain there will be a way, deep trademark loophole vortex of new oxygen is not no retreat, now put in front of the new oxygen problem is: how to get out of the trademark loophole vortex as soon as possible? Liu Kuang personally believes there are four options for new oxygen.

First, directly purchase the trademark and reach a settlement with the other party

The core of this solution is a large amount of money. By buying the trademark, New Oxygen can compromise the trademark loophole but get back on track. We’ve seen this sort of trademark loophole solution from some of the biggest companies.

For example, Apple was sued by Proview Shenzhen for trademark infringement when it was promoting its iPad products to enter the Chinese market. Finally, Apple paid $60 million to obtain the trademark of iPad in the Chinese mainland, so that it could be put on sale in China.

This solution is an excellent stop-loss option for New Oxygen because it can quickly resume online business. Secondly, it can eliminate the adverse effects on users as soon as possible and stabilize users after APP returns to the market. However, the problem of this solution is not simple, for the start-up company New Oxygen, a large amount of money used to solve the trademark loophole dispute is a very tricky problem. Even if the money could be raised to buy the logo, the original purpose of the money would be wasted, and the startup’s much-needed blood production might be wiped out.

Two, change the trademark online, a complete makeover

Replacing a trademark is also a solution to the problem, rather than buying the original one with money. For New oxygen, the replacement of trademarks does not affect the operation of existing online businesses. However, it is necessary to take into account the previous investment cost of trademark promotion, such as advertising promotion through various channels.

Once the brand name is changed, the new oxygen may not be the new oxygen. Because all the way to the development, New Oxygen has used this trademark to lay a land, both users and partners, will be familiar with the new oxygen trademark. In addition, there are additional costs associated with a new brand name, including user re-education, re-advertising, etc., and all marketing costs in the past have been wiped out.

According to the public financing information of New Oxygen, it has raised about 400 million RMB in the three rounds of ABC. For a 2C start-up company, usually at least half of the cost is used for marketing. With the rise of Internet marketing costs in recent years, if you want to make the new trademark as famous as Xinoxygen now, I am afraid that at least 300 to 400 million market costs will be re-invested, which can be said to be bleeding for a bid.

And in the past, there are also involved in trademark disputes of the enterprise to choose this solution. In October 2014, grapefruit, a women’s health app, was renamed “Meiyou” in various platform versions. The reason is that the impact of name change on brand influence is reflected in consumer loyalty and other aspects. From this point of view, under the fallback path of choosing to change the brand name, Xinoxygen has to face an uncomfortable situation.

3. Give up online business and change business model

The APP was removed from the shelves, which means that the online model can not go. However, For The O2O model of Xinoxygen, it can still survive and transform into a medical beauty enterprise with pure offline business model. In this way, New Oxygen can also avoid trademark disputes and concentrate on offline business development. According to the current offline layout of New Oxygen, it can further expand its offline business advantages.

However, it is not easy to give up the O2O model. For The previous strategic layout of New Oxygen, online is an important scene for it to harvest the flow and guide the flow offline. If Xinoxygen does not hesitate to eliminate the once proud model, it may face the embarrassment of losing a large number of users. As we all know, the current retail industry has moved towards the integration of online and offline, and the potential of a single scene has been exhausted. If the O2O model is abandoned, it will return to the origin of the traditional offline, and whether New Oxygen can revive its momentum remains to be tested.

4. Apply for trademark rights in lawsuits

Compared to the first three more passive solutions, the strongest attitude is to settle through litigation. For example, in November 2012, 115 net disk was “115” trademark holder sued the 9th class (namely computer hardware, software) and the 42nd class (namely computer hardware and software design and development, etc.) trademark infringement, not only was removed by a number of Android app stores, the lawsuit between the two lasted more than a year. The good news is that the 115 disc is finally back on the shelves.

If the new oxygen wants to defend his dignity with the weapon of law, it is not impossible. Although New Oxygen Company does not have the “New Oxygen” class 9 trademark, but its popularity is much higher than Beijing Green Time, new Oxygen company appeals to the court to apply for rights. However, trademark lawsuits tend to take a long time to resolve and the outcome is uncertain, and pursuing an unknown decision for several years is hardly a good solution.

However, news recently emerged that New Oxygen appears to have reached a merger agreement with Gengmei. For the two industry leaders, New Oxygen may take this step as a step forward. Gengmei and New Oxygen are obviously in a leading position in the current competition in the Internet medical beauty industry. Once they merge, they will become a small giant with a monopoly position.

The nightmare of trademark loss: blocked listing, lost users, lost marketing costs

New Oxygen is just a microcosm of many trademark loopholes. Behind New Oxygen, we can also judge that the impact of trademark absence can be devastating to start-up companies. If entrepreneurs do not pay attention to trademarks, it may cause some unexpected adverse consequences to their enterprises.

First of all, brand influence suffered and user loyalty decreased. Trademark is user-oriented and market-oriented. For entrepreneurial companies, trademark design often contains many profound meanings. These positive meanings are also a kind of values that the enterprise transmits to the market and consumers. Under such values, users can continuously improve their recognition and loyalty to the enterprise. When the trademark is changed, users will first feel strange. Based on this sense of distance, users’ demands may be further weakened, thus losing part of their loyalty.

For example, when shopping on JINGdong and Tmall, users have formed a certain understanding of trademarks, what can be bought on jingdong and what can be bought on Tmall. If the two were to be exchanged one day, the first reaction of consumers would be to hesitate, so even the giants cannot avoid the serious consequences of ignoring trademarks. As an entrepreneurial company, it is important to accumulate user reputation and recognition. If the influence and cohesion of trademark are interrupted, it will surely bring unimaginable negative effects.

Second, corporate values are shaken and may even need to be rebuilt. Whether you’re in angel rounds, E rounds, or F rounds, or even startups that just went public, the logo is like a banner. From the establishment to the development of entrepreneurial enterprises, the process is not easy. In many cases, a logo is a cultural representation of a company. When employees mention trademarks, they will first think of the values of the enterprise, and the cohesion and motivation will be imperceptibly implanted into everyone’s values.

Why we can hear ali people, Baidu people today, because the value of enterprise trademark cohesion has become the code name of all employees. For example, the slogan of New Oxygen is “New oxygen, peace of mind to become beautiful”. If the trademark is changed, the slogan of enterprise service will also have corresponding changes, which is not very favorable news for the entrepreneurial companies that rely on cohesion step by step to reach today.

In addition, the loss of capital, the cost is pulled up. Entrepreneurial enterprises are already short of capital, especially at the key development node, capital should be used on the edge of the knife. No matter what method they choose, entrepreneurial enterprises will have to use a lot of capital to fill the loopholes in all aspects to solve the problem of trademark absence. Such a blow is not ordinary people can survive, the most ideal is just a broken arm to survive.

Finally, the listing was blocked. As can be seen from the case of New Oxygen, trademark loophole may directly lead to the suspension of the listing plan of a start-up company, and the blocked listing means that it cannot obtain financial support from the capital market in a short period of time, and the start-up company with reduced blood transfusion ability may even have an uncertain future.

Trademarks are to startups what flags are to soldiers. If entrepreneurs do not pay attention to protecting their trademarks, they may face huge financial and emotional pressure after getting into trouble. The replacement and destruction of enterprise trademarks will become an insurmountable spiritual barrier, hindering entrepreneurial enterprises to go further.

Trademark value promotes the upward development of corporate culture and capital strength

James Bond has the code name 007, and the X-Men aren’t nobody. The enterprise trademark is the code name of the enterprise, and its value can not be underestimated, especially when the value identification is increasingly becoming the criterion of the relationship, the trademark is also a cultural symbol for the enterprise. In addition, the value of a trademark in monetary terms also proves the capital strength of a company.

First of all, the value of the trademark is directly proportional to the capital strength of the enterprise, especially with the gradual growth of the enterprise, the trademark has become the name card of the enterprise, which can not be ignored. For example, in financial statements, there is an indicator called goodwill. In fact, it also reflects the importance of trademarks for the development of enterprises. For example, Coca-Cola’s trademark value has exceeded 70 billion dollars. The value of the trademark is built up by the favorable factors of the long-term operation of the enterprise, and the capital strength of the enterprise will be constantly promoted.

Secondly, trademark is a name card, which is the cultural soil, even the spiritual soil, on which enterprises live. Now we see BAT, see TMD, they are talking about their business name, is obviously has formed a sense of pride and identity. Because, this trademark means enterprise brand, enterprise target, enterprise responsibility, enterprise culture and so on. Therefore, the supporters who establish a link with the enterprise trademark are generally those who identify with the core value of the enterprise.

From trademark value to corporate culture, it actually reflects the formation of values and the growth of capital strength of an enterprise in the development process. The trademark loophole of New Oxygen is just a microcosm. Behind such disputes, we should think about how to maximize the value of the enterprise’s trademark and establish a spiritual bond between the trademark and users, so that the trademark can become the spiritual leader recognized by consumers at a glance. In a word, trademark value has become the backbone of enterprises to cultivate consumer culture and strive for cultural soil, and become a standard of enterprise capital strength.

Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110