The Legal Protection Of Non-traditional Trademark

As the times progress and society develop, great changes have occurred in the field ofbusiness activity. Trademarks, with no doubt, is one of the most important parts in the processof standing out of business activities in the rapidly developing commercial society.Trademarks is closely related to people’s life for the fact that everyone needs to purchasecommodity and thus inevitably having connections with trademarks. Trademarks helpconsumers better identify the source of commodity and service while shopping, knowing thecondition of the manufacturer or seller and then evaluate the commodity’s quality viatrademarks. With the advancement of technology and application of high-tech methods, it isbeing more and more difficult for traditional trademark resources to keep pace with the times.When traditional trademarks fail to generate profits and values for manufacturers, new typesof trademarks begin to increasingly grow, resulting with the formation of new trademarks.Traditional trademarks are now in the transition from visibility and static state totrademarks with palpability and in dynamic state, i.e.non-traditional trademarks. Discussionof this paper, which includes four parts, focuses on issues related to non-traditionaltrademarks.The first part introduces the basic theories of non-traditional trademarks and concludethe definition of non-traditional trademarks through the transfer from traditional trademarks tonon-traditional ones; analyze non-traditional trademarks from the perspective of functionalityand induce the types of non-traditional trademarks.Starting with the significance of protecting non-traditional trademarks, the second partformulates the necessity of protecting non-traditional trademarks centered on the developmentof trademark logo, requirements of application for trademark registration, maintenance of faircompetition in the market, and development trend of international trade law. Meanwhile, itintroduces the essential conditions of non-traditional trademark protection, analyzing itsregistrability and then the most basic elements including conspicuousness, non-functionalityand describability concerning trademarks.The third part analyzes protection upon non-traditional trademarks made by severalimportant international agreements, summing up provisions of representative trademark lawson non-traditional trademarks by countries all over the world. The fourth part introduces problems existing in the legal protection of sound trademarks,scent trademarks, touch trademarks, taste trademarks and single color trademarks, etc. In themeantime, it comes up with questioning and refutation respectively in response to theseproblems.