Institutional Logic Of Well-known Trademark Alienation

As a jargon used in the Trademark Law, Well-known Trademark enjoys a wider scope of protection, stronger legal effect and even more administrative protection. The law protects the Well-known Trademark in a higher level, which intends to make up for the limitations of the insufficient normal trademarks protection and thus better address the legal disputes such as trademark registration, infringement and others related to unfair competition. The establishment of the Well-known Trademark by State Administration of Industry and Commerce as well as the People's Court is the premise and means to resolve the legal disputes rather than the purpose, not to mention it is a title of honor given to the enterprise.However, the contemporary situation in China is that some enterprises consider the Well-known Trademark as the title of honor. They use it as a marketing tool in promotion and in terms of establishment strategy; they deliberately look for or even create disputes to get the Well-known Trademark. We call such circumstances"Well-known Trademark Alienation", which means the phenomenon of various actions and strategies taken to depart or deviate from the legislative intent and the essence of the rights emerges on the purpose, path and results of Well-known Trademark establishment. Violating the legislative intent, Well-known Trademark Alienation has turned into a widespread social phenomenon. It has also caused great concerns from State Administration of Industry and Commerce as well as the Supreme People's Court and they have been urged to take measures continuously to make containments and regulations.Currently, the majority of the studies focus on Well-known Trademark Alienation from the perspective of law. They probe into the flaws of the legislative system, the loopholes of the law enforcement and provide solution for the institutional reform as well as improvement measures for law enforcement. However, the legal research cannot well explain that as an institutionalized action, how the alienation of Well-known Trademark forms and spreads and what is the logic mechanism supporting its alienation and proliferation. In view of this, this essay mainly use New Institutionalism as its analysis tool to demonstrate and analyze the alienation and proliferation of Well-known Trademark as well as systematically observe and arrange the deep reasons behind the alienation along with its generating mechanism. It offers reasonable explanations from the perspective of sociology.From the view of the New Institutionalism, local governments, consumers, other enterprises, intermediary agencies, news media, organizations of Well-known Trademark establishment as well as its institution, concept or practices create together an institutional environment for the alienation of Well-known Trademark. They also stimulate or promote more and more enterprises to engage in the alienation from different perspectives. Some enterprises have not only accepted the understanding of the Well-known Trademark's meaning in line with its institutional environment, but also have taken actions and strategies to engage in the alienation in order to cater for and satisfy the requirements and anticipations of the institutional environment. As the product of the institutional environment, Well-known Trademark Alienation manifests as three various types: alienation centering on established objective; alienation centering on established path and alienation on results utilizing.The institutional environment influences the Well-known Trademark Alienation and its institutionalized proliferation primarily through four mechanisms:(1)Inducement mechanism. It means that the institutional environment provides strong temptations and incentives itself, thus leading to the alienation of the Well-known Trademark in enterprises. Inducement mechanism comes mainly from the influence of the government departments and it can explain all types of alienation.(2)Mimetic mechanism. It means that the amount, features and benefits of enterprises which pursue, gain and utilize Well-known Trademarks will have an impact on the alienation of other enterprises. Mimetic mechanism primarily comes from the influence of other enterprises and can also explain all types of alienaiton.(3)Ingratiatory mechanism. There exists some recognition or anticipation in the institutional environment which can encourage enterprises to engage in Well-known Trademark Alienation in order to cater to social recognition and anticipation. Ingratiatory mechanism comes mainly from the influences of consumers and media. It prevailingly explain the alienation centering on established objective and result utilizing.(4)Normative mechanism. Intermediary agencies and professionals in the institutional environment will induce, prompt and assist the enterprises to engage in alienation through their professional experience and skills. Normative mechanism mostly comes from the influences of the intermediary agencies and mainly explains the alienation centering on path choosing.Why the above influential mechanisms of the institutional environment are able to play a role is because these enterprises complying with the requirements, anticipation and recognition of the institutional environment can have access to the resources they need through Well-known Trademark Alienation, including government resources such as money rewards and policy supports, social resources such as consumer's trusts and brand reputation, competitive resources such as brand status and advertisement resources, and leverage resources such as financing instruments. If institutional environment fails to provide the resources they need, the will of enterprises to participate in Well-known Trademark alienation activities will be reduced or even disappear.So it can be seen from that in the process of the proliferation of Well-known Trademark Alienation, on one hand, the requirements and anticipations of the institutional environment stimulate and promote enterprises from engaging in alienation; on the other hand, the enterprises are willing to or even take initiative to accept the influence of the institutional environment for their need to seek resources. Therefore, regulating the establishment of Well-known Trademark simply from the perspective of the legal practice can not eliminate Well-known Trademark Alienation. Only eliminating or reducing the influence from the institutional environment on enterprises in pursuit of Well-known Trademark, especially cutting off the resources offered by institutional environment can make a success of it.