Study On Legal Protection Of Trademarks Owned By Multinational Corporations

The fact that counterfeits and infringements against trademarks are more and morerampant continues to pose a serious threat to many enterprises, especially multinationalcorporations who owned lots of famous and well-known marks at home and aboard. Asintellectual property is generally deemed as private right, certain scholars think itsstrong legal protection has bad impact on the current development of commodityeconomy in China. But counterfeits cause the severe harm to the national economythrough the loss of national tax revenues. And also counterfeits cause the direct andsevere harm to interests of enterprises and affect the investment environment in Chinaand the confidence of foreign enterprises investing in China. It brings a bad reputationfor products made in China and enterprises based in China. The counterfeiting andinfringement make severe impact on market order in the effect to the commercialcredibility system, which contributes to unfair competition among enterprises. Thosecounterfeits with substandard quality probably hurt the consumer confidence and healthand fail to enhance the quality of citizens. In conclusion, anti-counterfeiting andtrademark protection are to meet the needs of nation, society, enterprises andconsumers.Under the circumstance of the development of the economy and laws, some newcharacteristics of counterfeiting and infringement have appeared. First, there has beenless direct counterfeiting of registered trademarks. Infringers begin to exploit theloopholes in laws and policies. For example, to register famous or well-knowntrademarks as the names of enterprises; To imitate or register the special trade dress ofwell-known commodities; To improperly use his own registered trademarks in malice,which are same as or similar to well-known ones; To squeeze the markets by makinguse of the public notification period in the registration application process of famousbrands. Infringers have developed from the simple manufacture to specialization,systematism and trans-national operation. Along with the economic globalism and theexpansion of the internet, the exports of counterfeited internationally well-knownproducts have received more attention from multinational corporations. And manyenterprises make use of their legal identity to manufacture fake products. That is, anotable trend in counterfeiting is the increase in legal persons who are engaged in theillegal activities.At present, trademarks protection faces some problems due to the faultiness of lawsand regulations, mainly is light criminal punishment to counterfeiters. The authoritiesshould detail the prosecution standards, expand the prosecution scope of infringementagainst registered trademark right, unify the prosecution standard of individuals andlegal persons and apply more fines and punishments against competence. Regardingtrademark legislation, multinational corporations have their own difficulties when theyprotect their marks in the world. However, the government should stipulate detailedtrademark examination rules and establish a fast channel to resolve trademark disputesand oppositions. Well-known marks should be protected by emphasis. The newrecognition rule of a well-known mark needs to be amended according to the practice.The national treatment has been begun to apply to foreign marks from this year. Well-known mark should return to a legal protection measure from a kind of honors.In addition to the faultiness of the laws and regulations, the current enforcementenvironment also brings many problems and difficulties to trademark proprietors.Administrative law enforcement departments have punished most counterfeiterseffectively and efficiently, however counterfeiters who have violated criminal laws arenot transferred to judicial organ for judgement in a timely manner after the fines madeby the administrative departments. Local government protectionism seriously indulgeslocal counterfeiting and infringement behaviors. Verdic...