What is the difference between invalidation and revocation of a trademark
First of all, the reasons that make a registered trademark revocable are different from those that make a registered trademark invalid. A registered trademark is invalid because it directly violates the prohibitive provisions of laws and regulations, and infringes upon the country's legal order and public interests. Therefore, it is invalid of course, invalid from the beginning, and absolutely invalid; a registered trademark can be revoked because the registered trademark is in The legitimate rights and interests of others were infringed during the registration application process and after the registration was obtained, but the legal rights holder did not discover it at the time. If the right holder finds that his or her rights have been infringed upon within a reasonable period of time (for example, within 5 years), he or she may apply to the trademark administration authority to cancel the registered trademark.
Secondly, the handlers are different. Since an invalid registered trademark directly violates the mandatory provisions of laws and regulations, thereby infringing on the country's legal order and public interests, the ruling on the invalidity of a registered trademark should be made by the trademark administrative agency on its own initiative, but it does not exclude the society. The public supervises the effectiveness of registered trademarks; applications for revocation of registered trademarks can generally only be made by interested parties. Trademark administrative agencies are generally not allowed to take the initiative to cancel registered trademarks and must cancel registered trademarks based on the application of interested parties.
Again, the effect of revocation is different from the effect of invalidation. As mentioned before, the invalidity of a registered trademark is of course invalid, invalid from the beginning, and absolutely invalid. The ruling on the invalidity of a registered trademark has retroactive effect; while a registered trademark was valid before it was revoked, and its effectiveness becomes invalid only after it is revoked. Therefore, the canceled registered trademark is subsequently invalid and relatively invalid, and the ruling that the registered trademark was canceled has no retroactive effect.
It can be seen that there are great differences between the invalidity and revocability systems of registered trademarks, and a detailed distinction between the two has great theoretical and practical significance. However, in the theory and practice of my country's trademark law, there is no effective distinction between the two. my country's Trademark Law actually treats the invalidity of a registered trademark as a condition, and regards the cancellation of a registered trademark as the legal consequence after it is ruled invalid; in terms of expression, it can only be expressed as the invalidity of a registered trademark, which greatly strengthens the The public law or administrative law nature of trademark law weakens the private law nature of trademark law.
In fact, as an important part of intellectual property lawParts of trademark law are essentially private law. In terms of initiating entities, trademark administrative agencies have always been the most important ones, which weakens the right of entities with the most interests in registered trademarks to apply for initiating applications. It also greatly increases the workload of trademark administrative agencies and reduces work efficiency. ; Finally, considering the legal implementation and operating costs, without the buffer of the revocation system of registered trademarks, a large number of registered trademarks have been declared invalid, which increases the administrative costs of government agencies, wastes social resources, and is ultimately detrimental to the market. economic development.
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