Research On The Protection Of Unregistered Trademarks Under The TRIPS Agreement

Due to the territorial limits of the intellectual property rights and the different systems to acquire the trademark right in the worldwide,1925Hague Diplomatic Conference of Paris Convention added to the protection of unregistered well-known trademarks in order to prevent against the cybersquatting of the unregistered well-known trademarks, to promote the development of international trade and knowledge economy and to protect the fair market competition. Based on Paris Convention, TRIPS Agreement made new development and improvement on the scope of protection and judgment criterion of the unregistered well-known trademarks. Under TRIPS Agreement, WTO Members provide different degrees of protection for the unregistered well-known trademarks according to the status quos of the country or area.The thesis is based on the development of practices after TRIPS Agreement’s taking effective and adopts the following research methods, such as historical comparison, treaty interpretation, positive analysis and theoretical research, to analyze the protection system of unregistered well-known trademarks under TRIPS Agreement. In the introduction part, the thesis puts forward the research object and the significance. Based on the definition of the research object, the thesis will be divided into four chapters to discuss it further.In the first chapter, the thesis illustrates the international law sources of the protection system of unregistered well-known trademarks under TRIPS Agreement by combing the treaty relationship between Paris Convention and TRIPS Agreement. Then the chapter studies on the protection system of unregistered well-known trademarks and its theoretical basis under Paris Convention. The second chapter illustrates the formation reasons of the protection of unregistered well-known trademarks under TRIPS Agreement by studying the drafting history of incorporation of unregistered well-known trademarks into TRIPS Agreement; Then the chapter focuses on the judgment criteria of well-known trademarks under TRIPS Agreement based on Paris Convention. Combined with Article6bis of Paris Convention, the second chapter mainly study on the special issues of judgment criteria of unregistered well-known trademarks. The chapter also compares the WTO Members’protection obligations of the unregistered well-known trademarks and the unregistered trademarks through the comparative method. The third chapter studies on the protection systems of unregistered well-known trademarks in EU and USA under TRIPS Agreement and relevant regulations of free trade agreements; and makes summary on the legislative trends on WTO Members’judgment criteria of the unregistered well-known trademarks under TRIPS Agreement. Based on China’s status quo of the legislative protection of unregistered well-known trademarks and the administrative practices, the fourth chapter summarizes the existing problems and puts forwards the suggestions to improve the protection system of unregistered well-known trademarks by adopting the successful international, domestic and overseas experiences.