Original title: "Hoarding trademarks", "famous brands", "hitchhiking", "rubbing hot spots" and other malicious trademark registration behaviors have been repeatedly prohibited (citation).
The principle of good faith is the criterion (subject) for judging whether a trademark registration is legal and legitimate
Worker**-Reporter Lu Yue of China Labor Network.
In a short period of time, more than 300 trademarks have been applied for registration, and the actual use of trademarks cannot be proved; applied for registration of more than 170 goods, including epidemic-related trademarks such as "Fangtang" and "Huoshenshan"; Knowing that his application for a registered trademark was improper, he also sent a warning letter to others to file a complaint...
On December 14, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced the special trial work on the regulation of bad faith registration of trademarks, and released ten typical cases of bad faith registration of trademarks.
Bad faith trademark registration usually refers to the act of registering a trademark in violation of the principle of good faith for the purpose of grabbing or improperly exploiting the market reputation of others, harming the prior rights and interests of others, or misappropriating public resources.
The survey found that in recent years, a certain proportion of the administrative cases of trademark authorization and confirmation heard by our court still involve the issue of malicious trademark registration, reflecting that the current phenomenon of malicious trademark registration is still repeatedly prohibited. Song Yushui, vice president of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, said.
According to Song Yushui, the wrongdoers preemptively registered signs with a high degree of public attention, such as public resources, social hotspots, and emergencies, as well as the names of celebrities, and other people's prior well-known brands, as trademarks, with the intention of using their "traffic" and additional commercial value to realize them into improper commercial interests. This not only seriously harms the legitimate interests of the right holder, but also disrupts the order of trademark registration management and market competition in China, and harms the public interest.
In the process of hearing administrative cases of trademark authorization and confirmation and civil infringement cases, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has always taken whether the principle of good faith is followed as the criterion for judging whether the registration, use and protection of trademarks are legal and proper, and has paid attention to giving play to the role of judicial guidance in the trial of specific cases, so as to effectively improve the effectiveness of adjudication and demonstration.
For infringers with obvious malicious intent and serious consequences of infringement, the court shall apply punitive damages in accordance with law. In the typical case released on the same day, a liqueur company was the trademark owner of a series of trademarks such as "Yege", and a liquor company imitated the brand in an "all-round" way from the trademark, product packaging, slogans, sales methods and other aspects, and there was an act of "mixed sale of real and fake". After the liqueur company issued several rights protection statements and sent warning letters, the liquor company continued to carry out infringing acts, with obvious intent to infringe. The court held that punitive damages should be applied to the liquor company's actions, and the liquor company was ordered to compensate the liqueur company for economic losses of 10 million yuan in the first instance. The original verdict was upheld in the second instance.
*: China Industry Network - Workers**.