Identification And Regulation Of Well-known Trademark Dilution

Well-known Trademark protection is a special trademark protection system. It provides a broader, more fully protection for the marks which were recognized as"Well-known Trademark". Not to protect the interests of consumers as the legislative intent of"Trademark Law", Well-known Trademark protection system is to protect the interests of"Trademark owners".Well-known Trademark Dilution theory is one of the most significant form of Well-known Trademark expansion protection. Dilution is a reducing of trademark ability of goods or services of well-known trademark, or a weakening of the trademark ability of identifying the source of trademarks or service. The key point of protection against trademark dilution is to protect the advertising value and good reputation of the well-known trademarks to be used by the others no matter they are intention or not which can dilution the well-known trademarks. The tradition core of the legislation on marks is to prevent consumers confusing about the source of the goods and services, which means if the consumers confused or might would constitute trademark infringement. But what problem the Dilution Theory try to solve is well-known trademarks dilution might cause damage to the trademark owners but not the consumers'confusion. So the key point of the protection of well-known trademarks on Trademark law is to protect the interests of the trademark owners, but not the interests of the consumers. And the tradition law cannot be used here. In our country trademark dilution is not theory, but it is being used in practice. And these kinds of using are not alone or given by a good reasoning. Sometimes the courts mix the dilution theory with confusion theory. To fully protect the interests of trademark well-known marks and improve the level of anti-dilution protection, we must act on the well-known trademark dilution and determined efforts on the legal regulation.This paper references to the basis of exiting research results. Combining with the actual case of Chinese and foreign trademark anti-dilution protection results, the writer try to prove what we lack in legal practice, and support to learn from foreign experience to improve the lever of the anti-dilution protection in China.This article is divided into three chapters:Chapter one is about the basic theory of dilution, including the definition of trademark dilution, nature and type of dilution, and the different between the dilution theory and the confusion theory.Chapter two divides into two parts. The first part analyzes the trademarks and the features of trademarks, which can prove the writer's opinions on well-known trademark and the necessity of anti-dilution protection. And the second introduces the constitutions of dilution and different determination standards and shows a dilution case happened in United States, which can tell us the ways of determinations of standards and the reasoning of dilution.In chapter three, the author shows his own opinions and point out the problems of trademark dilution in China, and proposes some legislative suggestions on anti-dilution protection of well-known trademark.