What is the legal framework for trademark protection
The legal framework for trademark protection refers to the purpose and protection of trademarks in a country. Basic arrangements for objects and methods of obtaining trademark rights. In this area, due to historical and other reasons, the legal frameworks for trademark protection in various countries around the world present diversified characteristics. The types of trademark rights acquisition principles include acquisition by use, acquisition by registration, and acquisition by use and registration at the same time; in countries that adopt a registration system, both registered trademarks and unregistered trademarks are unified under a common umbrella. There is a single-track system, and there is also a dual-track system in which registered trademarks are protected by trademark law and unregistered trademarks are protected by competition law or tort law. The usage principle focuses on substantive justice and protects the interests of the entities that make trademarks valuable, while the registration principle focuses on the stability of the legal order and the certainty of trademark rights. In terms of the basic framework of trademark protection, countries or regions, in addition to maintaining the original system rooted in their own legal traditions, also learn from each other's practices from other systems that reflect fairness or are in line with economic and trade development trends.
Principles for obtaining trademark rights
First need To be clear, what this article discusses is the original acquisition of trademark rights. The familiar ways of acquiring property rights include possession, attachment and processing. for thingsThe rights enjoyed by this traditional legal protection object are obtained based on a specific behavior of the subject. The original acquisition of trademark rights, which are also civil rights, is different from this. Judging from the current relevant legal regulations in various countries and regions around the world, the original acquisition of trademark rights has different requirements due to different rights acquisition principles.
The history of trademark protection shows that protection was first provided for trademarks Common law countries in common law countries have passed case law on the premise that trademarks have reputation among the public, and trademark reputation is established through the use of trademarks. (Note: "Use" here refers to the first and continuous use of a trademark in connection with goods or services. The initial use method is to directly attach the trademark to goods, product packaging or containers.) Directly inherited from the UK Case law and then further developed American case law and French case theory in the 19th century believe that the use of a trademark is a prerequisite for obtaining trademark rights. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there has been a new model for obtaining trademark rights - trademark rights are generated through specific administrative procedures, that is, registration.
The principle of usage is an early and still used Principles for acquiring trademark rights adopted by some countries. According to this principle, the exclusive right to use a trademark belongs to the first user of the trademark. From the perspective of the original acquisition of rights, the acquisition of trademark rights in this situation is similar to the acquisition of property rights, that is, the legal fact that the subject first uses the trademark is the basis for the formation of trademark rights. At the same time, the geographical scope of "use" determines the scope of validity of the right. Currently, only the United States and the Philippines have trademark systems that only use use as the basis for establishing trademark rights.
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