Trademark And Trade Name Rights Conflict Research

The frequent conflicts of trademark rights and rights of business name are becoming increasingly intense. Infringer's intentional adoption of the same or similar trademarks or business names means illicit competition, which not only brings loss to the obligee, but also damages the interests of majority customers and the nation's normal state of law and order. The issue of how to carry out effective judicial remedy for such conflicts has brought into focus of both the theory and practice world.The reasons of conflicts are divergent. In addition to the motivation of economic interests, the immanent cause lies in the similarity of trademarks and business names, while the fundamental cause can be concluded as the imperfection and limitation of legal system.In order to solve the conflicts of trademark rights and rights of business name, the basic thing to do is hold principles. There are the principle of protection of primacy of rights, the principle of confusion forbidden, the principle of special protection of famous trademark.. Two aspects of the problem are proposed in this article: prevention of conflicts of rights and solution of such conflicts under the present law. As to the prevention of conflicts of rights, the first thing to do is establish the position of the business name legislatively, which is to be protected by the law of intellectual property right. Furthermore, registration agencies for business names should be centralized to some extent, registration system should be carried out at provincial level, and registration procedure should be improved. The national unified enquiry system of famous trademarks and business names are to be established. Finally, the prevention consciousness of enterprises should be strengthened, and the integration of trademark and business name is a good practice for enterprises to follow. As to how to solve conflicts under the present law, the key lies in how to understand 'must not conflict with the legal rights formerly obtained by others '. The author holds that the prerequisite of understanding the conflicts is to make it clear whether they are same or similar in shape and whether they may confuse customers.