How to effectively protect well-known trademarks
In the Trademark Law before the revision, my country basically treated well-known trademarks There is no provision. In judicial practice, when it comes to the protection of well-known trademarks, we have to find a basis from the relevant international conventions that our country has committed to join. At this time, the protection of well-known trademarks under our country's laws is seriously out of touch with the protection of well-known trademarks internationally. Providing a high level of protection for well-known trademarks is the essence of well-known trademark protection. After my country joined the Paris Convention, both legislation and law enforcement reflected a common theme, which is to provide well-known trademarks with higher protection than ordinary trademarks.
The trademark applied for registration on the same or similar goods is Copying, imitating or translating someone else's well-known trademark that has not been registered in China will easily lead to confusion, and it will not be registered and is prohibited from use; a trademark applied for registration for different or dissimilar goods is a copy, imitation or translation of someone else's well-known trademark that has been registered in China. If a trademark misleads the public and may cause damage to the interests of the registrant of the well-known trademark, it shall not be registered and its use shall be prohibited.
The protection and protection of well-known trademarks under my country’s Trademark Law Compared with the protection of ordinary trademarks, there are two special features: first, the scope of protection includes not only well-known trademarks registered in China, but also well-known trademarks not registered in China; second, registered well-known trademarksThe right of prohibition by the owner of a famous trademark is not limited to similar use on similar goods, but extends to use on dissimilar or dissimilar goods.
(1) Protection of well-known trademarks not registered in China
my country has always adopted a registration acquisition system in terms of how to obtain trademark rights. Registration is the basis for obtaining trademark rights. Unregistered trademarks generally do not receive legal protection. When an unregistered trademark conflicts with a registered trademark, the registered trademark takes precedence. According to the first-to-register principle, if the first person to use a trademark does not apply for registration in time, he will not be able to obtain trademark rights for the trademark if someone else applies for registration first. Based on the principle of independent trademark rights, trademarks registered in other countries and unregistered in China are not protected.
This kind of "no registration, no protection" In principle, it may lead to very unfair results for the owners of well-known trademarks. Although some well-known trademarks have not been registered in China, their real owners are operators who have used the trademark for a long time and made efforts to cultivate the reputation of the trademark. When the well-known trademark is preempted by others, Registration or use will inevitably cause damage to the legitimate rights and interests of the well-known trademark and its owner. Therefore, it is necessary to make exceptions to the principle of acquisition of registration, that is, trademark rights can be acquired due to well-known reputation. The specific content is the provisions of Article 13, paragraph 1, of the Trademark Law. According to this regulation, if a well-known trademark is not registered in China, its scope of rights is limited to identical or similar goods.
Such a provision does not violate the Paris Convention and The basic requirements of the TRIPS Agreement are also in line with the actual situation in the field of trademark protection in my country. In fact, when my country's trademark protection implements the registration principle, unregistered well-known trademarks are protected, which itself reflects the special protection of well-known trademarks. This provision absorbs the reasonable elements of the principle of obtaining trademark rights to a certain extent, and grants trademark rights to unregistered well-known trademark owners, which is conducive to achieving substantial fairness in the field of trademark law and is also smooth.Responding to the trend of international trademark protection.
Others use the same or similar unregistered well-known trademarks If a trademark is used on the same or similar goods and is likely to cause confusion, the owner of an unregistered well-known trademark may request the industrial and commercial administration department to ban its use.
Believe that others are using their unregistered well-known trademarks as corporate If the name registration may deceive the public or cause misunderstanding to the public, someone who has not registered a well-known trademark may apply to the competent authority for enterprise name registration to cancel the registration of the enterprise name.
The above is what the editor of Hualu compiled for you Regarding knowledge, if you have more questions, you can consult a professional lawyer on the Legal Savior Network, or directly entrust a Legal Savior Network lawyer to help you get out of your legal dilemma.
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