How to strengthen the legal protection of well-known trademarks in my country
(1) Further expand the scope of protection of well-known trademarks
The identification of well-known service trademarks and well-known commodity trademarks should be further distinguished standard. The identification standards for well-known service trademarks and well-known commodity trademarks should not be exactly the same. This is determined by the different characteristics of service operations and commodity production and operation. Some regulations, such as "the sales volume and sales area of goods using this trademark in China", "the sales volume and sales area of goods using this trademark in foreign countries (regions)", etc., only apply to the identification of well-known product trademarks. It cannot be applied to the identification of well-known service marks.
A well-known trademark has high visibility, and its owner company The scale is generally large, so its protection should be different from that of ordinary registered trademarks, and should be protected in a wider range. However, the scope and degree of protection of well-known trademarks must be dealt with on a specific basis, that is, they must be specifically defined based on the specific circumstances of the trademark. Generally speaking, the expanded protection of well-known trademarks is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, well-known trademarks with originality can be protected across product categories. rightAny unauthorized use shall be stopped by the industrial and commercial administration authorities, and fines may be imposed in serious cases. It should be noted that although "Tongrentang" has not been registered for health food and beverage products, the aforementioned protection can still be implemented. This is one of the so-called "expanded protections".
Second, for a well-known trademark recognized by the Trademark Office, if from the date of recognition, others use words that are identical or similar to the well-known trademark as part of the company name, and may cause misunderstanding by the public, the Industrial and Commercial Administration If the administrative agency refuses to approve the registration, if it has already been registered, the well-known trademark registrant may request the industrial and commercial administrative agency to cancel it within two years from the date it knows or should know.
Third, clarify the joint trademark and defensive trademark systems Well-known trademark owners must develop a strong legal awareness and register words and graphics that are similar to well-known trademarks that may be confused with their well-known trademarks as joint trademarks. They can also register defensive trademarks on similar or dissimilar goods, thereby prohibiting others from doing so. Use well-known trademarks to achieve active protection of well-known trademarks.
(2) Improve judicial protection of well-known trademarks
First, well-known trademarks contain unlimited business Value, some companies intentionally or unintentionally use other people's well-known trademarks as their own business names. The "Trademark Law Implementation Regulations" and the "Protection Regulations" clearly stipulate that if a party believes that others have registered its well-known trademark as a business name, which may deceive the public or cause misunderstanding to the public, it may apply to the competent authority for business name registration to cancel the business name. The registration authority shall handle the matter in accordance with the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Regulations".
The author believes that when others use a well-known trademark as a business name to register, the right holder can apply to start the well-known trademark recognition procedure, or the right holder can directly request the People's Court to determine whether the trademark is well-known without going through administrative procedures. , determining that the enterprise name registration is invalid.
Second, The "Paris Convention" stipulates that the validity period for disputes over the registration of well-known trademarks is 5 years, and China's "Trademark Law" uniformly stipulates that disputes over registered trademarks can be submitted to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board within 1 year from the date of approval. In order to comply with In line with international practice, some provisions should be appropriately added to the trademark law to extend the dispute period for well-known trademarks. In addition, the amount of damages can also be expanded, and the punishment for infringement of the ownership of well-known trademarks can be strengthened. From the administrative, civil and criminal aspects, Raise administrative fines, damages and criminal sentencing standards to deter offenders.
Third, establish an immediate infringement system. Many countries identify these infringement preparation activities that are foreseeable and not unfoundedly inferred as infringements and can be stopped by injunctions. Article 50 of the TRIPS Agreement The "temporary measures" stipulated in Article 1 require the authorities of member states to prohibit such "immediate infringement" and stop infringing products before they enter the circulation channels, rather than after. Therefore, in order to accurately protect well-known trademarks, it is necessary to increase the number of immediate infringements. .
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