On The Anti-unfair Competition Protection Of Business Identifier Rights

Business identifiers such as trademarks, trade names are the main carrier by which enterprises can identify the source of different products or services and show themselves. They are the outcoming of creative working. With the globalization of world economy, people have been attaching more and more importance to their business identifiers, because well-known and famous business identifiers can make them obtain more competitive chances and earn more profits. Intellectual property is one of the special rights in the family of civil rights, so the busine ss identifier rights, as one kind of intellectual property, belong to civil rights. Using business identifiers is one of competitive behaviors, and infringement and passing off are common phenomena. These unfair competitive behaviors badly damage the rights of owners of business identifiers. Anti-unfair competition protection of business identifier rights is necessary as well as the protection of the special laws of intellectual property. This study on anti-unfair competition protection of business identifier rights involves in civil law, intellectual property law, anti-unfair competition law, economics. There is no the concept of so called business identifier rights in Chinese laws, but business identifiers such as trademarks, trade names are actually protected in practice. In many foreign countries, not only is market confusion forbidden, but also dilution, therefore, business identifiers are able to be protected widely. In China, this protection is very poor owing to the limitation of protected object and scope ,so behaviors such as infringement and passing off can not be controlled effectively. Besides, some provisions of anti-unfair competition law of People's Republic of China have resulted in some disputation in the academic circle and confusion in practice. This paper analyses the protection of business identifier rights, from the angle of anti-unfair competition law. On the basis of studying on the basic concept of business identifiers and their rights, and the legal explanation on anti-unfair competition protection of business identifier rights, this paper illustrates the theories and practices in foreign countries and in China and some important international treaties in this field as well. After this paper points out the shortcomings of the protection in this field in China, it puts forward my own suggestions on how to perfect anti-unfair competition protective measures of business identifier rights.