From Roujiamo to Xiangli, does the association prosecute businesses to defend their rights or collect money?

　　Chinanews.com client, Beijing, November 26 (Reporter Zhang Xu) Hu spicy soup and Rou Jia Mo were not yet on sale, so they were asked for tens of thousands of yuan. How can they do this small business?

Recently, Xiaoyao Town Hu Spicy Soup Association and Tongguan Roujiamo Association sued merchants to arouse widespread concern.

　　Although the actions of the two associations have been suspended successively, many questions arise from such incidents: What kind of trademark is worth protecting?

Is there an unhealthy tendency to apply for trademarks to arbitrarily accumulate money?

To sell Tongguan Roujiamo, first pay 100,000 yuan

　　In the middle of this month, dozens of shopkeepers in Xiaoyao Town Hu La Tang in Jiaozuo, Henan Province suddenly received a court summons: they were sued for infringing on the trademark use rights of "Xiao Yao Town Hu La Tang", claiming compensation ranging from RMB 30,000 to RMB 50,000.

The prosecutor is the Hu Spicy Soup Association of Xiaoyao Town, Xihua County, Zhoukou.

According to the data from Tianyan Check, the "Tongguan Roujiamo Association" successfully registered only the convenience food "Tongguan Roujiamo" trademark.

　　Subsequently, "Tongguan Roujiamo" another trademark dispute.

Dozens of snack bar merchants claimed that the Roujiamo they were selling was sued by the Shaanxi Tongguan Roujiamo Association for carrying the word “Tongguan” and they demanded compensation ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 yuan. If they want to continue to use it The trademark "Tongguan Roujiamo" is required to pay 99,800 yuan.

　　According to Tianyan Check information, the "Tongguan Roujiamo Association" successfully registered only the convenience food "Tongguan Roujiamo" trademark. The application date was April 2014, and the exclusive right period was until December 2025.

　　After applying for the trademark, "Tongguan Roujiamo" opened the brand authorization and franchise system.

The franchise fee table released by the association shows that the fees for joining Tongguan Roujiamo flagship store, standard store and entrepreneurial store are 99,800 yuan, 59,800 yuan, 39,800 yuan, plus various miscellaneous expenses. The total cost is about 140,000 yuan, 90,000 yuan, and 50,000 yuan.

The picture comes from the WeChat public account of "Tongguan Roujiamo".

　　Tianyancha APP shows that the Tongguan Roujiamo Association has a total of 212 court announcements. The defendants include Roujiamo shops, snack bars, and fast food restaurants in many places. Most of the cases are infringement of trademark rights.

In 11 lawsuits with verdicts, most of the “Tongguan Roujiamo Association” acted as the plaintiff and sued a number of snack bars on the grounds of infringement of trademark rights, but most of the cases were withdrawn.

　　It is worth noting that many defendants did not have the words "Tongguan" or "Tongguan Roujiamo" in their store names.

In an interview with the media, one of the defendant’s merchants also stated that he became the defendant only because part of the menu had the option of "Tongguan Roujiamo".

　　On the Internet, public opinion on this matter is almost overwhelming: How can a place name become a trademark?

Some netizens joked: "Lanzhou ramen, Shaxian snacks, Beijing roast duck, Wuhan hot dry noodles, and Guilin rice noodles began to tremble."

　　While the association was suing everywhere, the official website was hacked.

On the morning of the 24th, the official website of the Tongguan Roujiamo Association appeared similar to the character rain in "The Matrix"-the green "Unscrupulous Association" floating on the screen under a black background.

On November 24, the official website of the Tongguan Roujiamo Association was hacked.

Xiaoyao Town

　　On November 21, the Hulatang Industry Development Center of Xihua County, Henan Province issued a statement saying that it had ordered the "Xiaoyao Town Hulatang Association" to suspend the work currently being carried out.

　　The statement also stated, “Hu spicy soup is not only from Xiaoyao Town, but also belongs to the people of the whole country. The reason why Hu spicy soup in Xiaoyao Town has become a well-known delicacy is inseparable from the inheritance and cooking of Hu spicy soup operators in various places. The hard work of the colleagues in the opening is even more inseparable from the recognition and support of the broad masses of people."

　　Zhang Xinnian, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said: “The Hulatang trademark rights protection incident in Xiaoyao Town was suspended by the local industry center. The Tongguan Roujiamo Association has launched a trademark rights protection war and initiated hundreds of lawsuits across the country. Winning, Lanzhou Ramen, Shaxian Snacks, Shanxi Sliced ​​Noodles...will it work?"

Screenshot of lawyer Zhang Xinnian's Weibo.

　　In the Weibo poll initiated by Zhang Xinnian, 314 people participated, and a total of 258 people voted for "abusive litigation and bad influence."

The awareness of intellectual property protection is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Why is this type of behavior disgusted by people?

　　Zhang Xinnian said: "Intellectual property rights are the creation of the use of knowledge, not the existing public resources. If the behavior of the Xiaoyao Town Hu spicy soup Association and Tongguan Roujiamo Association is allowed, it will play a very bad role in demonstrating. Many fields, including but not limited to the catering industry, may set up such associations in the future, abusing the right of litigation, and small businesses have become "fish and meat", and the courts will also be unbearable."

　　Hu Keli, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, believes that Roujiamo and Hu spicy soup are small businesses, but they have been prosecuted for tens of thousands of dollars, and only one authorization can be obtained by selling tens of thousands of copies.

This is the reason why "Xiaoyao Town Hu spicy soup" and "Tongguan Roujiamo" have aroused greater public opinion on the Internet.

　　Hu Keli told a reporter from Chinanews.com: "The general rules of the Trademark Law stipulate that the legislative purpose is to'protect the interests of consumers, producers and operators and promote the development of the socialist market economy.' However, the'collective trademarks' originally used to protect collective interests are suspected. 'Private use' was exploited by some speculators."

On November 26, the State Intellectual Property Office responded to the trademark dispute of "Xiaoyao Town" and "Tongguan Roujiamo".

　　The State Intellectual Property Office also stated on the 26th: "Tongguan Roujiamo" is a geographical indication registered as a collective trademark, and its registrant does not have the right to license the use of this geographical indication collective trademark to merchants outside the specific area of ​​Tongguan and charge a franchise fee.

At the same time, it has no right to prohibit businesses in a specific area of ​​Tongguan from properly using the geographical names in the collective geographical indication trademark.

　　At present, the State Intellectual Property Office has instructed relevant local departments to understand the progress of the incident, strengthen administrative guidance on the protection and use of trademarks by all parties, and actively do related work to handle trademark disputes in accordance with laws and regulations. It is necessary to protect intellectual property rights and to It is necessary to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights and properly handle the relationship of interests among trademark owners, market entities and the public.

　　On November 26, the Tongguan Roujiamo Association issued a letter of apology for the trademark rights protection of Tongguan Roujiamo, and stated that it would immediately stop defending the rights of the operators of Tongguan Roujiamo across the country.

Letter of apology from Tongguan Roujiamo Association.

The Fragrant Pear Association received nearly one million compensation, saying there was no money-gathering

　　The State Intellectual Property Office has set the tone, but there are still many similar cases.

　　Recently, in Luoyang, Henan, hundreds of fruit merchants selling fragrant pears with the word "Korla" were sued by the Korla Fragrant Pear Association for infringement.

　　The Tianyan Check App shows that the Korla Fragrant Pear Association of Xinjiang Bayingoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture was registered in June 1994. At present, the association has only successfully registered the trademark "Korle Fragrant Pear" for feed seeds.

　　Since 2018, the Korla Fragrant Pear Association has sued more than 600 fruit shops and companies to the court, mostly on the grounds of "infringement of trademark exclusive rights and unfair competition", requesting the defendant to compensate from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.

According to incomplete statistics, since 2018, the association has received more than 970,000 yuan in compensation by prosecuting merchants for trademark infringement.

A statement from the Korla Fragrant Pear Association in Bazhou, Xinjiang.

　　But the association does not think it is at fault.

On November 26, the association issued a document stating that there is no high initial fee, nor is it mandatory for merchants to join the association; the association is a social organization and is a non-profit organization, and there is no lawsuit for raising money for normal rights protection.

　　In Kunming, many restaurant operators whose names contained the word "glasses" were sued by Bao Mou, the trademark owner of the registered trademark of "glasses".

　　The court announcement information showed that Bao Mou associated more than 40 disputes involving trademark infringement, and the defendants were snack bars and barbecue restaurants in Sichuan, Fujian, Shaanxi, Hunan and other places.

Bao Mou asked the defendant to remove the shop signs and doors with the same or similar signs such as "glasses" in the shop, and claimed tens of thousands of yuan.

Among them, many lawsuits were rejected by the court or the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit.

The data comes from Tianyan Check.

　　In Hu Keli's view, the statement of the State Intellectual Property Office has an important guiding role in similar incidents.

She suggested that in order to reduce the use of judicial procedures to accumulate money in the slogan of safeguarding collective interests, relevant departments should supervise and strengthen management of registered associations.

　　There are also lawyers suggesting that for companies or associations that may have undesirable purposes, using authorization to engage in industry monopolies or to request high membership fees, the parties can complain to the market supervision department or report to the judicial administrative agency for handling.

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