The trademark "Raincoat Sister" was rejected: Say no to the "Business"
Talk about Fengsheng
The squatting of the trademark "Raincoat Sister" was rejected, highlighting China's fairness and seriousness in the field of intellectual property protection.
After the outbreak, because of "retrograde" driving to Wuhan to cook lunch for medical staff, Liu Xian, a 90-year-old restaurant entrepreneur in Chengdu, became popular on the Internet. However, shortly after the media reported on the "Raincoat Sister" deeds, many natural persons and companies applied for the "Raincoat Sister" trademark in multiple categories, including clothing, catering, tea, etc. To this end, Liu Xian, who felt chilled, embarked on the road of rights protection.
A few days ago, the registration of the trademark "Raincoat Sister" was registered. The State Intellectual Property Office rejected some trademark registration applications according to law, and some squatters also withdrew their trademark applications.
"Sister Raincoat" is still on the front line, but behind it is a group of people who are busy registering trademarks. The comparison between "good" and "bad" is really speechless. These cybersquatting activities are not only a breakthrough to the boundary of intellectual property protection, but also a challenge to the boundary of public order and morality.
Different from the general "spot hotspot" trademark squatting behavior, squatting of people or specific names and labels involved in epidemic may not only infringe the rights and interests of the relevant parties, but also offend and consume the public sentiment and connotation behind the trademark. The Trademark Law clearly stipulates that the trademark applied for registration shall not conflict with the legal rights previously obtained by others, and shall not damage the social morality or other adverse effects.
The State Intellectual Property Office also stated in its grounds for rejection that other applicants had applied for registration of “Sister Raincoat” as a trademark without Liu Xian ’s authorization, which could easily lead to misrecognition of the source and cause significant adverse social impacts, and could not be registered and used as a trademark. From the standpoint of being kind to the anti-epidemic volunteers, such names as "Raincoat Sister" not only correspond to the silent contributions and special experiences of the parties, but also condense the public value of the society. If such squatting is allowed to succeed, It is also not conducive to protecting the anti-epidemic spirit.
In fact, in February this year, the State Intellectual Property Office formulated the "Guidelines for the Examination of Epidemic Prevention and Control-Related Trademark Examinations" to start the control of trademark registration applications related to the epidemic and prone to adverse effects; in March, the State Intellectual Property Office issued The "Notice on Severely Cracking Down on the Act of Acting on Abnormal Trademark Applications Related to the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic" requires all localities to increase the investigation, investigation and prosecution of the act of acting on abnormal trademark applications. . "
There are public reports showing that there have been many cases of fines issued by trademark applicants or agencies across the country. This shows that some "squatting" behavior is not only unsightly, but also suspected of being illegal. In fact, the wind of trademark squatting has been popular for many years, and similar scenes have appeared in the period of SARS. Behind these squatting, not only is it a personal luck, but also often corresponds to the gray industrial chain, accompanied by various blackmails, malicious competition and other illegal chaos. Therefore, dismissing unreasonable application behavior is only the most basic link, and the gray industrial chain that may exist behind it must be squandered and severely governed.
Big events like the epidemic often give birth to many hot labels and things, and also allow trademark squatting to "wait for opportunity", which puts forward higher requirements for trademark registration review. But from another perspective, the concentration of chaos in the "special period" can also be a window to promote good governance.
Of course, the management of the phenomenon of malicious squatting of trademarks is part of the construction of an intellectual property protection system. Its perfection requires joint advancement in administration, law and other aspects. However, the timely rejection of unreasonable applications is to directly say no to malicious squatting, and this link is still the key.
□ Ran Ran (media person)