Research Of Trademark Infringement On Waste Products Recycling

The recycling of waste products whether infringes the rights of trademark is a new andcomplex issue, so it is a big challenge for the application of both legislative and judicial.Theorists and practitioners have put their own ideas, hoping to solve this problem. In thispaper, four cases are listed to lead to the legal nature controversy that whether the recycling ofwaste products infringe the trademark rights, and the author analyzes the dispute reasonably.Then based on the fundamental theory of trademark law, like the confusion theory, theprinciple of trademark rights exhausted, the theory of public policy and other basic theory oftrademark law, and analyzes the factors which are considered in the dispute above, then putsforward the idea that the waste product recycling is a trademark infringement. The mainframework is as following:The first part mainly sets out the legal nature controversy about the recycling of wasteproducts. This part mainly simply defines the conception of recycling of waste products andintroduces four kinds of situations about the recycling of waste products by listing four typicalcases. In the course of cases processing, the scholars have been deeply split on the problem ofthe recycling of waste products whether infringe the rights of trademark. Through theintegration of the dispute whether recycling of waste products is a tort in the four cases, itprovides a good groundwork for the following argument.The second part presents confusion theory is the criterion to judge whether the use ofthe trademark is infringement or not. In judging recycling of waste products whether infringethe rights of trademark, mainly refers to the help of the United States’ experience in dealingwith the problem that the recycling of waste products whether infringes trademark rights ornot, that is: the principle of stating the true situation, and it has been thought that stating thetrue situation is a factor to be considered for the confusion principle. Closing this factor andcombing with the basic principles of the theory of confusion, these four cases which presentedin the first chapter are analyzed and judged one by one. And the author believes that therecycling of waste products is trademark infringement.The third part put forward the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights is a factor tojudge recycling of waste products whether infringe the rights of trademark. First, through asimple combing the world’s major countries of the provisions about the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights, think the recycling of waste product is a exception for theprinciple of exhaustion of trademark rights; secondly, analyze the reason why recycling ofwaste products is not apply to the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights; Finally, theauthor present some cases is existence about the recycling of waste product is apply to theprinciple of exhaustion of trademark rights.The fourth part mainly analyzes in judging the recycling of waste products whetherinfringe the trademark rights can’t use the theory of public policy to defend. Intellectualproperty has not only private attributes but also public policy attributes. It has become the toolof market competition. Countries all around the world have made intellectual propertystrategies in succession in order to occupy the commanding heights of the market. Based onthe attribute of the public policy of intellectual property, some people put forward that therecycling of waste products can use public policy to demur trademark infringement. I do notagree on this view, and I think that the public policy factor can’t be used to defend trademarkinfringement in the recycling of waste products.