Legal Protection Of Unregistered Well - Known Trademarks

The “well-known trademark” refers to trademark that has been well known by public concerned and possesses a high reputation. More often than not, to forge a well-known trademark, accumulating reputation through wise, diligent and honest operation of the brand is even more critical than a long-term use of the trademark. In this regard, the most fundamental element of a well-known trademark lies on that it represents a huge invisible property, which is also the key to brand strategy. In practice, nevertheless, many unregistered but have long been used trademarks become victims of illegal practices such as vicious registration due to their existing reputation and brand awareness. Therefore it is urgent to find out the ways of protecting those unregistered well-known trademarks. The new Trademark Law has been issued in2013, in which methods of protecting unregistered well-known trademarks were specified. Given the ongoing registration-orientation in the field of trademark protection in China, however, focus of the law still on registered trademarks. In witnessing this shortcoming, one can conclude that risk of those unregistered well-known trademarks of being infringed still stands high.Aiming at the problem, this thesis elaborates from the following aspects. Firstly,after illustration on the concept of unregistered well-known trademark, the significance of protecting them, in other words the rationality and legality are demonstrated; Secondly, current status of protection on unregistered well-known trademarks in China is explored, and in the meantime related cases are analyzed,shortcomings are detected; At last, corresponded countermeasures are proposed in combining with the present economic conditions of China and the relative regulations worldwide to propel a better protection over unregistered well-known trademarks.