Why Do Shoe And Garment Enterprises Frequently Register With Trademark Celebrities?

Because he thought his name was maliciously registered in China as a clockwork product. trademark The international pop music class "Britney Spears" Britney sent the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the General Administration of industry and commerce to the court for revocation of the permitted registration ruling. Recently, the first instance of the Beijing intermediate people's court rejected Britney's claim.

Coincidentally, the international basketball star Jeremy Lin The news of the name being snatch has also aroused great public concern.

According to the reporter, at present, the name of a registered celebrity has become a phenomenon that can not be ignored in the field of intellectual property.

　　 The trend of celebrity registration is gradually rising.

Britney said in her indictment that she is the world today. Popular BRITNEY, a popular pop star in the world of music, is known for its name and enjoys a high reputation among Chinese consumers. Her name "BRITNEYSPEARS" has been registered as a trademark in the United States and has been registered in various categories in China.

Britney believed that the Shenzhen Fuda trading company, without knowing the circumstances of the plaintiff, had deliberately registered her name as a controversial trademark without the authorization of the plaintiff. In addition, Britney also said that she has a very high reputation in international music circles. "BRITNEY" has become an undisputed well-known trademark in the world of entertainment and fashion. The registration and use of the controversial trademark will inevitably lead to confusion and misidentification in the market, making consumers mistakenly believe that the commodities contested by the trademark are related to her. Britney accordingly asked the court to cancel the ruling of the judges.

According to the court, the controversial trademark "Britney BRITNEY" was registered by Shenzhen Fuda company in August 2001, and it was approved to register in January 28, 2004, and restricted to the use of commodities as watches and clocks.

The court held that the evidence provided by Britney was not enough to prove that when the company registered for the "Britney" trademark, she had been widely known in the Chinese public and should not belong to the scope of protection of the well-known trademark in the Chinese Trademark Law. Therefore, the decision dismissed Britney's prosecution.

The reason why Britney filed this lawsuit is that the "BRITNEY" trademark has great commercial value. It is understood that Britney's sales volume can be sold on an average of 8 million 540 thousand copies per year, the total sales volume of its global single album is 60 million, the total sales volume of the global album is 87 million, and the total sales volume of the global record is 144 million 500 thousand.

At the same time, another Chinese NBA star "Harvard boy" Jeremy Lin, who is shining around the world after Yao Ming, was registered as a trademark by a sporting goods company in Wuxi, Jiangsu, because of the great commercial value of her dazzling aura.

The name "Jeremy Lin" is valued by US magazine Forbes for about 100 million yuan. This company, which was founded in 2002, mainly produces basketball, football, volleyball and other sporting goods business, only spent 4460 yuan, and successfully registered the "Jeremy Lin" trademark. According to Yu Min Jie, the owner of this sporting goods company, in July 2010, she discovered an excellent Chinese player Jeremy Lin on television. Yu Min Jie, judging from experience, Jeremy Lin is likely to become a Chinese NBA player in the near future.

Reporters on the Chinese trademark online search, "JeremyS.H.L Jeremy Lin" trademark, applied for 25 and 28 two categories. Among them, the twenty-fifth category is mainly clothing, shoes, hats and so on. The 28 category refers to sports ball games, game machines, toys and so on, and the duration of trademark is from August 7, 2011 to August 6, 2021.

Yu Min Jie said frankly that the original registered "Jeremy Lin" trademark is purely a commercial activity with prejudged nature, and there is no malicious speculation.

　 The law is not expressly prohibited.

In fact, the name of celebrities has been preceded by an embarrassing way of appearing on trademarks. In those days, when Nicholas Tse was the most popular, suddenly a diarrhoea drug called "diarrhea stop closure" was introduced from a pharmaceutical factory in Anshun, Guizhou.

Besides, there are "Ben pull lamp" illuminator, "Wang Jia Wei" toilet, "Zhao Benshan" shirt and so on, and the trademark of celebrities has also been a sensation.

"At present, the rush mark has become the" sunrise industry "of many people's eyes, and the hot resource of celebrity's name has become the first choice for rush registration. Wei Zhi, an associate professor of law school, Peking University.

According to the insiders, under the drive of interests, there are more "professional marker" and "trademark profiteer" in China, and the rush registration is moving towards specialized operation, and has created an industrial interest chain: rush, hype, coercive redemption or resale.

"From a legal point of view, the registration of celebrities as trademarks is not infringed." Zhang Xiang, deputy director of Huicheng Law Firm in Beijing, said in an interview with our reporter, "the Trademark Law" clearly stipulates the situation of no registration and no use of trademarks. It is not clear whether the names of celebrities can be registered as trademarks.

In accordance with our current laws, it is almost impossible for celebrities to stop being snatch, unless celebrities have registered all trademark categories.

Objectively speaking, the public will immediately associate celebrities with the names of celebrities. However, because of the star's name, others can not be registered as a trademark, nor is it fair. " Regarding the issue of celebrity trademark registration, Xu Xinming, chief lawyer of China Intellectual Property Lawyer Net, said that this involves the principle of balance of rights. Everyone has the right to name, and many people have the same name.

Under the premise that "celebrities" have not yet defined a clear standard, the protection of the rights of celebrities is essentially a violation of the rights of trademark applicants.

Legal experts believe that legally, there is a demarcation line, similar to that of Jeremy Lin. If he has not become a celebrity while registered trademark, few people know him, then he can register and be protected by law. And after Jeremy Lin has become a celebrity, another person's registration of the "Jeremy Lin" trademark outside the twenty-fifth category and the twenty-eighth category may be a violation of his right to name.

In addition, in practice, trademark examiners in the process of examining trademarks have the right of discretion in the "public character" of celebrities. Although celebrities like Jeremy Lin have a certain reputation, they are widely known only by the recent NBA ball games. They should not be too demanding. The trademark examiners should be aware of Jeremy Lin's high popularity. {page_break}

　 Rush to mark celebrity trademarks

The most fundamental driving force of the rush is from the temptation of huge economic benefits.

The "Zhao Benshan" trademark, which is homophonic to the famous comedian Zhao Benshan, was registered by a Beijing company and was recommended to domestic garment manufacturers at the price of 10 million yuan.

An enterprise planning company in Beijing registered the homonym "Zhang Yi Mo" of the name of the great director Zhang Yimou as a cosmetic trademark, and made a transfer price of 8 million yuan.

Not only celebrity names have been seized, but some hot terms have also become the object of rush. It is reported that "Chang'e 1" was snatch in 2004 and the price was 300 thousand yuan, while the "assembly number" was registered as the 12 category of trade mark and the bid price was 1 million yuan.

Experts believe that famous trademarks can make businessmen save investment in developing market and get huge economic benefits. However, it is not good to have good trademarks and products that can not be recognized and accepted by the public. Enterprises with pursuit should pursue more original trademarks, comply with the provisions of trademark law and other laws and regulations, and avoid unnecessary disputes.

According to the reporter, although Britney's claim was rejected, according to the grounds of the court's judgment, it can be reasoned that if Britney had already been widely known to the Chinese public when he applied for the registration of "Britney BRITEY" trademark, the name right of Britney belonged to the protection scope of the trademark law of China, and the court should decide to support Britney's claim.

"If Jeremy Lin disagrees with the registered trademark, he may get the trademark registered with his own name." According to insiders, if the trademark brings adverse effects to Jeremy Lin, and there is evidence that the trademark reduces the social evaluation of the party concerned, or causes the relevant public to misunderstand the trademark, the parties may request the Trademark Office to revoke, or sue for compensation, according to the follow-up procedure of Trademark Review Procedure, such as trademark objection procedure.

　　 It is understood that a few years ago, Yi Jianlian's trademark was snatch.

By the end of last year, a company in Wuhan had used Yao Ming and Yao Ming generation as commercial signs without any lawful authorization and justification, and was eventually sentenced to infringement of Yao Ming's name right and compensation of 300 thousand yuan.

"The use of celebrity names and commodities is linked to new businesses in order to expand the visibility of products in the short term, but it will not bring much benefits to enterprises in the long run." Experts also remind enterprises that the registration of celebrity trademarks will cause people's resentment and reduce the evaluation of enterprises, which will damage the reputation of enterprises, and will be harmful to the future development of enterprises.