Determination of infringement of well-known trademarks
Due to the huge investment and predictable economic benefits contained in the well-known trademarks Well-known trademarks have long been coveted by illegal infringers. Therefore, the identification of infringement of well-known trademarks is different from that of ordinary trademarks, and the former is broader. Because the protection of well-known trademarks mainly starts from both the horizontal and vertical aspects. The horizontal expansion expands the scope of signs that are "similar" to the well-known trademarks, and the vertical expansion expands the categories of goods or services marked by the well-known trademarks, from the same or similar goods. or services are extended to non-similar goods or services to achieve the purpose of granting special protection. The world's intellectual property conventions on trademarks are also based on this idea to determine the infringement of well-known trademarks to protect well-known trademarks. For example, the Paris Convention stipulates that for any mark recognized as a well-known trademark by a member state, others are prohibited from registering it first, and others are prohibited from using the same or similar mark. The Intellectual Property Convention further stipulates: It is announced that the special protection of the Paris Convention extends to well-known service marks, and the scope of protection is expanded to prohibit the use of well-known trademarks on dissimilar goods or services.
The same or similar logo. Our country's current determination of well-known trademark infringement basically follows this line of thinking. Article 13, Paragraph 2, of my country’s Trademark Law stipulates: “If a registered well-known trademark misleads the public, causing the interests of the registrant of the well-known trademark to be potentially harmed, it shall not be registered and shall be prohibited from use.” Problems that arise in the practice of trademark registration Joint trademarks" and "defensive trademarks" are also the results of this kind of thinking. However, because it is a well-known trademark, compared with the infringement of general registered trademarks, in addition to the expansion of the horizontal and vertical scope, there are other forms of infringement that are not available in typical trademark infringements, which is called "dilution" in academic theory. method of infringement. The so-called "dilution" means to distort, weaken or even eliminate in some way the connection between specific goods (services) bearing a certain well-known trademark and specific goods producers (service providers), resulting in the weakening of the distinctiveness and attractiveness of the trademark, thereby weakening the distinctiveness and attractiveness of the trademark. Causing confusion among consumers.
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