What are the reasons for conflicts between trademarks and corporate names
The conflict between trademarks and corporate names arises from the two Judging from the reasons, there are both normal crashes and malicious hitchhiking.
In the case of a normal crash, generally The person who registers a business name or a registered trademark later does not know that others have already used the same words as a trademark or business name. This situation is caused by a variety of reasons. First of all, due to the restrictions on the use of Chinese characters, Chinese is not like Western languages where you can create characters arbitrarily, and companies often want to use words of praise. The range of words that can be used as company names or trademarks is limited. This kind of conflict is objectively unavoidable. .
In addition, judging from the management methods of the two, the registration of enterprise names in my country is the responsibility of industrial and commercial authorities at all levels, ranging from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to provincial, municipal and county industrial and commercial bureaus. When approving a company name within a regional scope, there is no need to check whether the company name is the same as another person's trademark; conversely, although trademark registration is solely the responsibility of the National Trademark Office, there is no clear provision to treat other people's "trade names" as "prior rights" that are prohibited from registration. . When a company name is registered, it is not jointly searched with a trademark, and there are no publicity and objection procedures during the rights confirmation process. There are many cases where the company name is identical or similar to an earlier trademark.
In the case of malicious hitchhiking, it generally means that the perpetrator knows that a certain word is a trademark or trade name previously registered by others and uses it as his own trade names or trademarks, engage in identical or similar business activities, intend to confuse consumers or the relevant public, and use this to obtain illegal benefits. At present, in the conflict between corporate names and trademarks, legal disputes mainly occur in this situation.
Handling of trademark and business name disputes Principles
(1) Protection in Prioritize rights and regulate the behavior of market entities
Conflict Rights generally have a priority, and protecting prior rights should be the basis for handling such disputes
This principle is not only conducive to protecting the legitimate interests of prior rights holders, but also establishing evaluation standards for the market behavior of commercial entities through trials and regulating the registration, use of commercial logos, and advertising of market entities. and other business activities to maintain normal market order. It should be noted that a company name, as a symbol that distinguishes different companies or social organizations, has exclusive attributes and can only be used by the registered company. The owner of the exclusive right to the company name cannot allow others to use his or her company name. The defendant must obtain permission from others. The use of a business name as a defense will not be supported.
When protecting prior rights, the following should be considered:
1. Stop malicious registration and use of other people’s legitimate business logos. For violations of the principle of good faith,
Hitchhiking, clinging to others' commercial marks that have a certain degree of popularity beforehand, malicious registration and use of commercial marks that are the same or similar to others' prior rights, must be resolutely prohibited.
2. The continued use of the subsequent logo is prohibited. If the defendant registers a business name (or trademark) without the intention of copying the plaintiff’s commercial logo, it does not constitute malicious registration and use, but the subsequent users objectively cause misunderstanding and confusion among the relevant public. In this case , in order to maintain normal market order, we should order to stop the use of the following logo.
3. Prevent others from using commercial logos that have a certain degree of popularity but have not been registered.
According to the spirit of the TRIPS Agreement, commercial marks should be protected regardless of whether they are registered. Registering as a trademark a commercial mark that has been used by others and has a certain degree of popularity but has not been registered. The behavior is malicious registration and should also be prohibited.
( 2) Follow the principle of no confusion and clarify the boundaries of the exercise of rights
Conflicts between corporate names and trademarks objectively cause the relevant public to have negative opinions on market entities or products and
Confusion or misidentification as to the source of the service will not only damage the "brand value" of the prior right holder's commercial logo, but also damage the interests of consumers and disrupt the market order. When hearing cases involving trademark and business name disputes, courts must pay attention to following the principle of prohibition of confusion, clarify the boundaries and scope of use of the two rights, and avoid public confusion and misunderstanding of the same or similar commercial marks.
Whether it is easy to misunderstand or misunderstand the relationship between the plaintiff and defendant's enterprises or the source of the goods (services) Possibility of recognition is an important criterion for judging whether prior legal rights have been infringed. Generally speaking, to determine whether there is a misrecognition or possibility of misrecognition, we must first consider the trademarks, business names and other words, patterns or combinations thereof used by the plaintiff and defendant. Whether the two are identical or similar; whether the similarity or similarity between the two is likely to cause confusion among the relevant public about the specific relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant or between the goods (services); whether confusion is caused should be based on the general attention of the relevant public.
Whether the font size in the trademark and the company name is similar should be mainly considered The visual effect of the public shall be judged based on the pronunciation and meaning of the glyphs. As long as one of the glyphs and pronunciations is basically the same and is enough to cause consumers to misunderstand the source of the goods or services and the relationship between different operators, it shall be deemed to be similar. At the same time, the distinctiveness and well-known degree of the registered trademark requested for protection should also be considered.
The above is the relevant knowledge compiled by the editor of Hualu. If you have more questions, you can consult a professional lawyer on the Legal Savior Network, or directly entrust a lawyer on the Legal Savior Network to help you get rid of the legal dilemma.
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