Is there any exemption from liability for selling goods that infringe a registered trademark?

In practice, many of us may come across issues such as exemption from liability for selling goods that infringe registered trademarks, but because we don’t know much about it, many things are not clear. So next, the editor of Legal Savior Network has compiled some relevant information for you to understand together.

Are there any exemptions for selling goods that infringe registered trademarks

Yes.

(1) Selling goods that are not known to be trademark infringement

In real life, "don't know" includes two situations: "really don't know" and "should not know". As long as the perpetrator has one of them, it can be deemed as "don't know". To determine "didn't know", one should not rely solely on the perpetrator's oral confession, but should make a comprehensive evaluation based on the entire case, especially the source, price, transaction voucher, contract, and the perpetrator's duty of care and other objective facts of the infringing goods. If the perpetrator is negligent and does not know that the goods sold are trademark infringing goods, he shall be exempted from administrative and civil liability in accordance with the law.

The antonym of "don't know" is "knowingly". Referring to Article 4 of the Minutes of the First Working Joint Meeting in 2002 of the Economic Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Bureau of Fair Trade and the Coordination and Management Department of the State Intellectual Property Office, and the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "About Handling "Interpretation of Several Issues on the Specific Application of Laws in Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement", Paragraph 2 of Article 9 regarding the criteria for determining the "knowingly" situation of selling trademark infringing goods. The author believes that the "unknown" situation of the perpetrator selling trademark infringing goods can be based on This reverse inference means that if the perpetrator does not have the following nine circumstances when selling trademark infringing goods, he should be regarded as "not aware".

1. Know that the registered trademark on the goods sold has been altered, replaced or covered;

2. Having received administrative penalties or civil liability for selling trademark infringing goods and then selling the same kind of goods;

3. Having been notified or warned in advance , refuse to correct;

4. Intentionally using improper purchasing channels, and the price is much lower than known genuine products;

5. Invoices, accounts, etc. accounting Fraud on the certificate;

6. Large-scale dealers of goods with infringing trademarks;

7 , transfer or destroy physical evidence after the incident, provide false certificates and false circumstances;

8. Forge or alter the trademark registrant's authorization document or know that the document has been forged , altered;

9. Other situations where the goods are known or should be known to be trademark infringement.

(2) The trademark-infringing goods sold are obtained legally

1. The dealer has performed statutory inspections when purchasing the goods. Acceptance obligations.

2. When purchasing goods, dealers have fulfilled their due diligence obligations based on their basic daily life and business experience. For example, check the supplier's business license , the appearance characteristics, packaging and decoration of the goods, when doubts are found, the supplier will be questioned and asked to provide relevant supporting documents, and the commodity transaction vouchers will be requested and saved.

3. When dealing in goods exclusively sold by the state, adopt legal purchase channels.

(3) When the dealer explains the supplier of goods with trademark infringement Basic information that should be reflected

When dealers selling infringing goods are investigated and punished by law enforcement agencies, they should comply with legal requirements and due diligence in daily life and business operations. Duty of care: truthfully state the supplier's personal information such as name, gender, age, and physical characteristics, or the supplier's business name, office address, business address, inventory address and quantity of infringing goods, and provide information when necessary. The time, object and method of the other party's purchase and sale of infringing goods, the address of his usual residence, social relations and other information can be used by law enforcement agencies to promptly investigate the case and prevent the harm of infringement from continuing to occur.

I hope that through the above content you can have a deeper understanding of the issues related to immunity from selling goods that infringe registered trademarks. If your situation is more complex, the Legal Savior Network website also provides online lawyer consultation services.We welcome your legal consultation.