The Allocation Of Rights And Interests And The Undertake Of Obligations After The Termination Of The Trademark License Contract

With the development of economic, the licensing of trademark becomes increasinglycommon economic phenomenon,and the attendant legal issues are also increasing.Most ofthe people who signed a trademark licensing contract just focus on how to deal with agood licensing period and they often lack the detailed consideration of the allocation ofrights and interests and the undertake of obligations after the termination of the licensing oftrademark. There are also a lack of direct and workable regulation for these problems inour current legal system.After the termination of the licensing of trademark,the parties areoften trying to compete for the goodwill accumulated during the licensing in order tocompete for the market share.The commercial signs which have been attached on thewell-knon commodity together with the trademark played an important role in theaccumulation and recognition of goodwill. Its allocation, use and protection became thefocus of disputes after the termination of the contract.In this paper,the author focus on the plight of Wanglaoji case,and expand thearguments from both theoretical and practical aspect,and propose legislation in order tosolve problems such as this in the last part. The paper has been divided into four parts:The first part is to introduce the trademark licensing system created by our currentlaws,and to find existing problems. Whether in China or in most of the developedcountries, the provisions were not made directly on the allocation of rights and interestsand the undertake of obligations after the termination of the licensing of trademark.Butthere are many disputes after the termination of the licensing of Wanglaoji trademark. Thisis mainly due to the legislative oversight that the law of our country does not reveal all thedetails of the commercial signs protection.At the same time,the lack of detailed provisionson the rational use of trademarks is also an important reason leading to those disputes. The second part focuses on exploring the theory.In my opinion, the essence of theallocation of rights and interests and the undertake of obligations after the termination ofthe licensing of trademark is how can we make a reasonable allocation and adequateprotection on the goodwill which accumulated during the licensing oftrademark.Commercial signs are the carriers of goodwill. The critical path to split thegoodwill is how to distribut the commercial signs which have been exclusively attached onthe well-knon commodity.The legislation should give clear protection for the rational useof trademarks.The third part analyzes the problem with the Wanglaoji case for example.The tradedress and Ad words which have been exclusively attached on the well-knoncommodity(Red-can-Wanglaoji) are the typical commercial Signs.They should be theexclusive property of the well-knon commodity’s operator(JDB Group).The value-addedpart of the trademark shall be unpaidly recovered by the trademark registrant(GuanyaoGroup).The licensees are allowed to publicize the fact that the well-knon commodity wasrenamed but they couldn’t publicize that the trademark was renamed.The fourth part presents the following legislative proposals: the law of our countryshould reveal all the details of the commercial signs protection;the rational use oftrademarks should be allowed; there should be a grace period after the termination of thelicensing of trademark.