Ding Zhen's popular name is suspected of being registered as a trademark Li Jiaqi's voice trademark application rejected
What to do if the Internet celebrity trademark encounters fancy cybersquatting
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
"Oh my god, buy it and buy it!" Many people are familiar with Li Jiaqi's mantra when selling goods in the live broadcast room.
But whether this can apply for sound trademark registration, the answer comes out.
Tianyancha App shows that Shanghai Zhuangjia E-commerce Co., Ltd., one of the shareholders of Li Jiaqi, applied for registration in April this year, "oh my god, buy it, buy it!" The voice trademark was rejected on December 4.
Recently, there have been frequent cases of trademark cybersquatting.
Recently, a video of Ding Zhen, a young man from Sichuan Kamba, spread all over the Internet at a time, and even the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hua Chunying posted three tweets to introduce Ding Zhen to the world.
The popularity of Ding Zhen also allowed some companies to smell business opportunities, and the trademark "Ding Zhen" was suspected of being registered.
According to media reports, since November 14th, many companies have submitted applications for the registration of the "Ding Zhen" trademark, covering daily chemicals, education and entertainment, and website services.
According to Li Junhui, a special researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, trademark cybersquatting, especially malicious cybersquatting, is not desirable.
On the one hand, its trademark registration application may not be approved, and once it is found to constitute malicious squatting, it will still face the risk of being punished, which belongs to "picking chestnuts from fire." The public resentment is also "the gain not worth the loss" for the relevant applicant.
"The more important reason is that, on the one hand, this kind of cybersquatting behavior lacked relevant legal restraint and punishment. On the other hand, it was the result of unscrupulous merchants selling the trademarks obtained by cybersquatting for commercial speculation and obtaining high profits. More people take risks." Li Shunde, a professor at the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, commented.
Ding Zhen trademark suspected of being registered
"Pong famous brand" is not uncommon
On November 29th, Du Dong, general manager of Litang Cultural Tourism, said in an interview with the media that Ding Zhen is not yet suitable to be an acting or variety show star. He temporarily refused all invitations to pure variety show. The work they arranged for Ding Zhen was to Litang acts as a tourism ambassador, shoots videos, acts as a tour guide, and promotes tourism; on the other hand, he accepts employee training, learns office software, learns to post Weibo and WeChat, and learns tourism and cultural knowledge.
According to The Paper, Ding Zhen’s Litang Cultural Tourism has applied for registration in 26 categories of goods (45 categories in the international classification of trademarks).
According to the information from China Trademark Network, it contains category 3 of cosmetics, shampoo, toothpaste and other commodities, category 6 that includes ordinary metals and alloys, category 17 that includes raw materials such as rubber and plastic products, and products that include furniture, ivory, etc. The 20th category, the 23rd category of textile yarns and threads, the 30th category including coffee, sweets, etc., the 33rd category of liquor and beverages, the 36th category of insurance finance, the 41st category of education and training, and 9 categories of commodities and In the service, the applicant's clear text and trademark name is "Ding Zhen Pearl".
The trademark names of the other 16 categories of goods have not been updated on the official website of the Trademark Office.
Before Litang Cultural Tourism applied for the "Dingzhen" name trademark, there were 22 similar "Dingzhen" trademarks on China Trademark Online.
Among them, 12 trademarks began to appear after Ding Zhen became popular on November 14.
Among the 12 trademark applications for "Ding Zhen", the subjects included both individuals and enterprises, including Huizhou Yibaizhong Culture Media Co., Ltd., Beijing Wendeng Education Technology Co., Ltd., and Wuhu Ruosen Enterprise Service Co., Ltd., etc.
These trademark applicants either directly applied for the registration of the "Ding Zhen" trademark, but also applied for the registration of the "Ding Zhenzhen" and "Ding Zhenxiao" trademarks.
Just the day before Litang Company applied for trademark registration, on November 25, a company named "Guandi Tourism (Xiamen) Co., Ltd." also applied for the "Dingzhen" trademark.
And such incidents are not uncommon after the outbreak this year.
From the beginning of February to the end of March, applicants appeared in many places in China to apply for registration of trademarks related to the prevention and control of the "Vulcan Mountain", "Leishen Mountain" and words containing "Xinguan", "Li Wenliang" and "Zhong Nanshan", which aroused widespread concern and attention from all walks of life. Hot discussion.
On February 27, the State Intellectual Property Office rejected the "Li Wenliang" trademark registration application in accordance with the law, and for the first time announced the control and control of more than 1,000 epidemic-related trademark registration applications such as "Vulcan Mountain" and "Thunder Mountain".
On March 4 and 5, the State Intellectual Property Office issued two consecutive notices on the rejection of trademark registration applications such as "Huoshenshan", "Leishenshan", and "Li Wenliang".
“The occurrence of cybersquatting trademarks related to the epidemic is not accidental. This is a long-standing problem in the past.” Li Shunde said, “On the one hand, the large amount of profits obtained after trademark cybersquatting attracts many businesses to participate; On the other hand, the inadequate crackdown by the relevant departments has caused intermediaries to fuel the flames.
Chang Sha, a lawyer from Beijing Jingdu Law Firm, who has been engaged in relevant practical operations for a long time, also believes that the penalties for trademark infringement and illegal registration of trademarks are not high, and the deterrent effect is insufficient. People have a weak awareness of law-abiding laws related to trademark registration, leading to malicious and unlawful Regular trademark registration activities have occurred frequently.
Chang Sha said that due to violations of relevant laws and regulations of the Trademark Law, in practice, the chances of such trademarks being applied for registration are very small. Even if the trademark registration applicant uses improper means to make such trademarks apply for registration, the Trademark Office can still use the trademark " On the grounds of detrimental to the public interest of the country, the registered trademark shall be revoked on its own initiative or invalidated.
Multi-action and multi-party linkage
Regulate the trademark registration market
As of the end of October 2020, the number of valid registered trademarks in my country has reached 29.182 million, ranking first in the world for many years.
However, behind the soaring number of trademarks, there has been a long-term chaos of brand-name and malicious squatting, which has caused headaches for enterprises.
For defense, Alibaba has registered the family of "Dad Ali", "Grandpa Ali", and "Grandma Ali"; Xiaomi has registered "Black Rice", "Corn" and "Popcorn"; and some time ago, "Today You Tiao" is against "Today's Toutiao" The almost one-to-one imitation of trademarks forced "Today's Toutiao" to file a lawsuit in the court...Behind the seemingly funny jokes, the relevant companies have paid extremely high economic and time costs.
At the same time, for example, Ding Zhenyihong preemptively registered the "Ding Zhen" trademark, and Li Jiaqi applied for trademark registration as soon as he brought the goods.... What should be noted in these incidents is that despite the strong awareness of preemptive attention, all What it expresses is not the pursuit of uniqueness, but a kind of "first" and "first" consciousness.
According to Li Junhui, the principles of "first to apply" and "first to use" apply to trademark registration applications. Simply put, the earlier the application is filed, the more likely it is to be approved.
Therefore, many people or organizations are "enthusiastic" about trademark squatting, some of which are for the protection of legitimate rights, and some are for profit-making purposes.
According to the trademark law, many situations such as "not for the purpose of use", "infringement of the prior rights of others" and "may cause adverse effects" may constitute malicious cybersquatting.
The rectification of malicious cybersquatting and the regulation of the trademark registration market have always been the focus of the industry.
According to the official website of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the Office has vigorously promoted the “advance of the gate”, severely cracked down on malicious registration of trademarks in the stage of trademark review and opposition, strengthened the monitoring of malicious registrations, and adopted early review, centralized review and follow-up. Strictly apply laws and other measures to resolutely crack down on malicious registration of trademarks.
For example, in the "Li Wenliang" trademark case that has attracted the attention of all sectors of society, the Zhejiang market supervision department ordered the applicant Yang Moufang, the agency Shaoxing Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd. and the directly responsible person Chen Mougang to correct the illegal acts, and separately Administrative penalties of 2,000 yuan, 20,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan fines were imposed.
It is reported that this is also the first time that the "Regulations on Regulating Trademark Registration Acts" has been issued against trademark applicants nationwide.
"The trademark supervision department should strictly implement the "Regulations Regarding the Behavior of Regulating Trademark Application Registration" and issue a'ticket' for trademark registration violations so that people are aware of the legal consequences of their actions and treat trademark registration applications seriously." Chang Sha said.
At the same time, the State Intellectual Property Office previously issued a notice stating that all localities will speed up the establishment and improvement of trademark agency credit record files, record relevant violations of laws and regulations in agencies and personal credit files, and conduct joint punishments with relevant departments.
Regarding how to eradicate abnormal trademark applications and malicious squatting, Li Junhui believes that multiple efforts are needed:
First, it is necessary to further clarify the characteristics and penalties of abnormal trademark applications and malicious squatting in legislation;
Second, it is necessary for the society to form a good fashion for trademark registration applications, so that the principle of good faith will gradually form a rigid binding force in trademark applications, examination and approval, and guide relevant institutions or individuals to consciously boycott abnormal or non-goodwill trademark registration activities;
Third, the role of trademark agencies and examination agencies is needed to increase the identification and interception of abnormal or non-good faith trademark applications during application submission and registration review, so that trademark registration and use matters can be sourced and the registered trademark can be used. It should have the value and role of "protecting the interests of consumers, producers and operators, and promoting the development of the socialist market economy."
"In addition, it is necessary to publicize legitimate business behaviors, strengthen positive public opinion guidance in the society, strengthen education and popularization of relevant laws of enterprises, and enhance their legal awareness. All relevant departments should strengthen contacts, jointly conduct market management, and optimize the business environment. ." Li Shunde said.