The Study Of The Infringement Of Trademark Reverse Confusion

Trademark is protecting a kind of interest. The interest is gained from goods or service and the trademarks affixed on them. With the rapid development of global economy, the more use of trademark, the more value of it. There is a new type in the field of the trademark confusion, that is reverse confusion. Reverse confusion theory provides a new way to protect the interests of trademark owner. The theory becomes a important supplement of the traditional confusion theory.This article discusses trademark revese confusion from the following five parts.Chapter 1 raises the question, Why trademark reverse confusion behavior occurs. The United States is the first country which propose the concept of trademark reverse confusion, but also the first country which regard trademark reverse confusion to be one of the trademark infrigements . Therefore, a number of trademark reverse confusion cases happened in the United States. Through the study of the origins and development of trademark reverse confusion theory, we could find the standards of United States courts. At the same time in this chapter, the reverse confusion and reverse passing-off, which are two easily confused concepts, are compared.Chapter 2 focuses on the components of trademark confusion reverse and its specificities. This chapter begins with the causes of reverse confusion, study the components of trademark reverse confusion, which are deliberate confusion, non-descriptive trademarks, trademark similarity, resulting in consumer confusion, and the reverse of infringement. In the analysis of the components of trademark reverse confusion, we could find the special standards of the conduct, that is breaking the scope of trademark protection, and the special compensation standards. More importantly, we find that the specificities of trademark reverse confusion are the reverse of infringement, the specific relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, and the restrictive areas of goods.Chapter 3 analyzes why trademark reverse confusion is one of the trademark infringements, based on the study of the components of trademark reverse confusion in Chapter 2, from the theoretical point of view. Respectively, from the perspective of jurisprudence, law and economics perspective and the perspective of trademark law, to analysis the trademark reverse confusion. And thus we concluds that trademark reverse confusion is one of trademark infringements.Chapter 4 focuses on the infringement of trademark reverse confusion based on the analysis of real cases. Trademark reverse confusion cases, whether abroad or at home, are common now. But with the increasingly in-depth study of its judicial practice and theories, we will find that not all infringement cases of trademark reverse confusion can be winned by complaints. From the perspective of judicial practice, to find out the differences and similarities between foreign standards and domestic standards in determining what is trademark reverse confusion. U.S. focus on the commercial strength of the trademark used by the subsequent user. But the domestic practices focus on three principles: 1. whether subsequent user used the trademark as their own trademark; 2. whether the products are the same kind of products or the products are similar; 3. whether the conduct caused or may cause the confusion of consumers. The most important standard is whether the conduct caused or may cause the confusion of consumers.Chapter 5 is the last chapter of this article, it focuses on the lack of legislation on trademark reverse confusion, and provides relevant advices. It provides two legislative proposals. The first legislative proposal is to learn from the general legislation model of United States, but the legislation model has some limitations. The second legislative proposal is to define trademark reverse confusion as a trademark infringement. How to define it in legislation? There are three aspects: 1. the reverses of confusion and infringement; 2. the scope of the disputed trademark; 3. how to protect the unregistered well-known trademark from the conduct of reverse confusion. At last, this chapter provides the legislative proposal for defining the standards of compensation issues.Conclusion part is a summary of the article.