With the development of the Internet and e-commerce, conflicts between domain names and trademarks have become increasingly obvious as an important legal issue. Based on this reality, this article uses comparative and case analysis methods to discuss the legal conflicts between Internet domain names and trademarks and their solutions, in order to conduct a preliminary discussion and demonstration of the relevant legislative content in China's Internet field with theory and practice. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the main body of this paper is divided into five parts, which are: "The meaning and legal nature of domain names", "Legal conflicts between domain names and trademarks", "Realistic measures to resolve conflicts between domain names and trademarks", "Legal Applicable” and “Prevention mechanism for domain name and trademark conflicts”.
1. Introduction: Due to the rapid advancement of computer software and hardware technology, communication technology, digital compression and storage technology, the Internet (Internet) has rapidly spread to every corner of the world, and widely enter people's social life. When people use the Internet extensively, they gradually discover that domain names have conflicted with rights in the original intellectual property field, especially trademark rights.
2. The meaning and legal nature of domain names: Domain names are hierarchical character identifiers used to identify and locate computers on the Internet. They are related to the Internet Protocol (IP) of the computer. ) address corresponds. The domain name structure adopts a hierarchical setting and is divided into top-level domain names, second-level domain names, and third-level domain names. Domain names have the characteristics of "global unique identification" and "limitation and scarcity of resources". The main organizations involved in domain name management are NSI. Whether domain names can become a right and whether they can be protected as a new type of intellectual property rights is an issue that is currently controversial and worthy of discussion. Many experts and scholars have demonstrated the properties of domain names from different angles. The author of this article believes that domain names have the attributes of intellectual property rights, but domain names are intellectual property rights generated in the network environment, so they are an identifying mark right that is different from rights to creative achievements, and are intellectual property rights in a broader sense.
3. Legal conflicts between domain names and trademarks: This article first analyzes the differences between domain names and trademarks: 1. The geographical scope of rights protection is different; 2. The exclusivity is different; 3. , different purposes; 4. different registration and protection standards; 5. different registration procedures; 6. different composition. Next, this article discusses the legal conflict between domain names and trademarks.
(1) This article analyzes the reasons for the conflict: 1. The contradiction between the uniqueness of the domain name subject and the plurality of trademark subjects; 2. The open principle The inevitable result; 3. Huge business benefitsDrive; 4. The legal system is not perfect enough.
(2), the right holders include: 1. Trademark owner; 2. Domain name owner, that is, network domain name registration and user.
(3), the manifestations of conflict: 1. Disputes caused by domain name squatting; 2. Internet domain names containing words with registered trademarks in other people's words, Disputes arising from letters, etc.; 3. Conflict disputes between domain names and trademark rights and trade names; 4. Disputes over fees, trademark infringement and other disputes between domain name registration agencies and domain name owners.
4. Practical measures to resolve conflicts between domain names and trademarks: Currently, there are two main ways to resolve domain name disputes in the world: one is judicial, and the other is judicial. It is resolved extrajudicially through specialized private dispute resolution institutions. Since the dispute resolution agency only decides whether to retain, revoke or transfer the domain name to the complainant and does not involve financial compensation or other legal issues, judicial channels are the final way to resolve domain name disputes. However, currently there are not many countries in the world that have specific legislation to regulate domain name disputes. Courts are objectively faced with the dilemma of applying the law when handling domain name disputes. Finally, this article introduces the dispute resolution mechanisms of NSI, ICANN and CNNIC.
5. Application of law: By analyzing a series of typical cases, such as "The Domain Name Infringement Case of Dutch Interage Co., Ltd. v. Beijing State Grid Information Co., Ltd.", " (U.S.) Procter & Gamble Company v. Beijing Tiandi Electronics Group Domain Name Dispute Case" and "Procter & Gamble Company v. State Grid Corporation of China Unfair Competition Case", etc. The author found that the Chinese courts mainly apply the Trademark Law, Since the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" and the "Civil Code" do not clearly provide specific methods for handling such disputes, it is easy for different courts to identify and handle the same issue with great flexibility. Therefore, the author proposes that special laws should be formulated to resolve conflicts between domain names and trademarks. Finally, the author puts forward several issues that should be paid attention to in trial practice: 1. Determination of bad faith; 2. Priority principle; 3. The difference between domain names and registered trademarks; 4. Determination of well-known trademarks; 5. In Internet domain name disputes It is necessary to clearly protect the interests of well-known trademark owners and give them the "right to exclude" domain names; 6. The main forms of legal liability include stopping infringement, revoking domain names and other forms of liability to stop infringement and eliminate obstruction. Be careful with the form of financial compensation liability.
6. Preventive mechanism for domain name and trademark conflicts: In order to fundamentally reduce and try to avoid a large number of domain name and trademark disputes, we must focus on establishing an effective mechanism. On the preventive mechanism beforehand. From the perspective of preventing disputes, domain name registration policies are divided into open types., semi-restricted type and restricted type. The open registration policy is currently widely adopted and actively encouraged internationally. The basis for its use of private dispute resolution agencies to handle disputes is the domain name registration contract. Therefore, attention should be paid to the content arrangements regarding dispute prevention and dispute resolution in the registration contract. At the same time, we should also strengthen the cooperation between domain name registration agencies and national trademark management departments, establish a registration search system for domain name registration agencies, and change the lifelong system of domain name registration to a renewal system.
7. Conclusion: The legal conflict between domain names and trademarks is an inevitable problem caused by the Internet economy. But it is not an insurmountable difficulty. As long as we continue to improve the existing legal system and seek a legally fair balance of interests between trademark owners and domain name registrants, the domain name system and traditional intellectual property rights will coexist harmoniously. To maximize the social benefits of the network economy, it is necessary to strengthen and establish conflict prevention mechanisms.
