BEIJING, Jan. 12 / Xinhua-PRNewswire-AsiaNet / - Trademark as a sign of the distinction between the source of goods, has been a business to attract consumers and the accumulation of goodwill weapon. But in reality, there are businesses in order to "free-rider", the star, movie name, etc. registered as a trademark. "Jordan", "007", "Harry Potter" ... ... we are familiar with the names have become the "heart" of the registered object.

11, accompanied by the Supreme People 's Court issued "on the trial trademark authorization to determine the rights of administrative cases a number of issues", these acts will be strictly limited.

Political and cultural fields such as public figures can not be a trademark name!

Cultural celebrities, business elite name is not what you want to be able to use!

According to Article 10 (1) (8) of the Trademark Law, "signs of harmfulness to social morality or other adverse effects" shall not be used as trademarks.

The provisions of this release further clarify that trademark marks or their constituent elements may have negative and negative effects on public interests and public order in China, and the people's court may affirm that it belongs to Article 10 (1) (8) of the Trademark Law ) Of the "other adverse effects".

The application for trademark registration in the fields of political, economic, cultural, religious, national and other public figures shall belong to the "other adverse effects" mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Therefore, according to the Trademark Law, the names of the above public figures shall not be used as trademarks.

Star with a trademark "free" does not work!

In real life, film and television, the name of the sports stars have been registered as a trademark phenomenon has also occurred. For example, recently raised a lot of uproar in the Jordan trademark dispute administrative case series is one of the typical case.

Article 20 of the Provisions expressly states that the parties concerned claim that the trademark infringement on the name of the person concerned may be deemed to be deemed to be the mark of the goods if the relevant public considers that the mark refers to the natural person The people 's court shall determine that the trademark infringes upon the natural person' s right of name in the case of a natural person 's permission or has a specific connection with the natural person.

The name of the person in his pen name, stage name, translation and other specific names advocate the right name, the specific name has a certain reputation, and the natural person to establish a stable correspondence between the relevant public to refer to the natural person, the people's court to support it.

This means that trying to use the trademark "free-rider" approach will not work.

Films, role names can be used as trademarks?

"007", "Kung Fu Panda", "Sun Wukong" and other Chinese and foreign film and television works in the image of the people, but also to some companies playing "rub" the wishful thinking. Prior to the enterprise had "007", "JAMES BOND" registered as a trademark objection.

Article 22 of the Provisions expressly stipulates that for works in the term of copyright protection, if the name of a work or the name of a work in the work has a high reputation, the use of the trademark as a trademark in the relevant commodity may lead to misunderstanding of the relevant public The right holder's permission or the existence of a specific link with the right holder, the parties claim to constitute a prior interest, the people's court to be supported.

However, the treatment of this problem can not be a one size fits all. Wang Chuang, Vice President of the People's Court of the Supreme People's Court, said that while emphasizing the protection of the role of the image of copyright, on the other hand, attention should be paid to prevent abuse of the public's reasonable use of public cultural resources.

Cottage trademark confusion how to break?

"McKenzie" is what? McDonald's and KFC finally "marriage"? In recent years, many like "McKinsey" cottage trademark so dumbfounding, then, what kind of cottage trademark should not be registered or should be invalid?


Article 12 of the Provisions expressly stipulates that the parties, in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 13 of the Trademark Law, advocate that the trademark of appeal shall not be registered or shall be invalid if the trademark constitutes a duplicate, imitation or translation of the unregistered well-known trademark, The court should take into account the following factors and the interaction between factors and determine whether it is easy to lead to confusion: the approximate degree of trademark mark; the similarity of goods; the degree of salience and popularity of trademark protection; the relevant public attention; other relevant factors .

The subjective intentions of the applicant and the evidence of actual confusion may be used as a reference to determine the likelihood of confusion.

The Regulations also stipulates in Article 13 that the People's Courts shall consider the following factors to determine whether the use of the trademark is sufficient to make the relevant public think that it has a considerable degree of connection with the well-known trademark, thus misleading the public, Registered person's interests may be compromised: the salience and popularity of the trademark; the adequacy of the trademark mark; the use of the designated commodity; the degree of overlap of the relevant public and the degree of attention; the mark similar to the reference mark is legally used by other market players or other relevant factors.

This "provision" of the implementation, whether the end of the popular phenomenon of cottage trademark? The outside world wait and see. (Finish)