Research On The Protection Of Trademark’s Nickname

Companies usually use trademark in their goods or service to help peopleidentify the original of the goods or service. But the public don’t always usetrademark normatively. Sometime they are inclined to use the nickname to replacethe full name of the trademark. there are many discussions in both theory andpractice of law on the question of whether the nickname of trademark should beprotected. And many cases involving the protection of nickname have arisen inChina in recent years. This article will introduce the typical cases in this filed andanalysis the reason why we should protected the nickname of the trademark. Andthen the author will give some advice on how to protect these nicknames.There are four parts in this paper:Chapter I is the theoretic analysis on the protection of nickname. In this part，the author will introduce the basic theory of trademark to show the rationality of thisprotection. Usually the nickname is used by the public and the owner of thetrademark never uses it. Sometime the owner may propose the consumer don’t use it.But at the same time, the connection between the nickname and the goods or servicehas been established through the use of the consumer. According to the opinion ofprofessor Li Chen, there are three kinds of nickname：the one is the abbreviation ofthe trademark, the two is the translation of the trademark, the last one is the logogram of the trademark. But in this paper, this classification will not be adopted.The author will classify the nickname of trademark based on the way of theprotection. Some nicknames which are similar to the trademark can be protected byadvocating the infringement of trademark. But the other nicknames which are notsimilar to the trademark have to find other way to be protected. So this kind ofclassification may be more meaningful.ChapterⅡis the introduction of relative research on the protection of nickname.Firstly the author will show the typical cases involving the protection of nickname.The decisions of these cases will be analysis to show whether they are reasonable.Secondly this paper will present different opinions of the law specialists. In this field,it was case in practice which promoted the reach in theory. Therefore introducing thebasic situation in both practice and theory is very necessary.Chapter Ⅲ is the empirical analysis on the typical cases concerning theprotection of nickname in America. In this paper, several typical cases are selected toclassify the attitude of the courts abroad on whether the nickname used by the publiccould be protected. In these cases, we can find that the nickname is protected in theAnti-unfair Competition Law which can provide us some useful suggestion.Chapter Ⅳ is about the suggestions of how to protect the nickname of thetrademark. In this paper, the author holds that the nicknames which are different inform, should be protected in different way. Those which are similar to the trademarkcan be protected by advocating the right of trademark. Others have to be protectedby the Anti-unfair Competition Law.