Research On Trademark Coexistence Agreement Legal Questions

Trademark coexistence describes a situation in which two different enterprisesuse a similar or identical trademark to market a product or service without necessarilyinterfering with each other’s business. Basically, trademark coexistence is a broadlegal term, and trademark coexistence agreements fall into this category. This papermainly focuses on research on legal questions of coexistence agreements.The first chapter discusses the practical and theoretical grounds on whichcoexistence agreements are based. After comparing two commonly accepteddefinitions of coexistence agreement, it is safe to draw the conclusion that WIPO’sversion is more precise in expressing the object of agreement.The second chapter further demonstrates the criterion for deciding whether acoexistence agreement is valid after being reached by contracting parties. It is knownthat an agreement is reached when contracting parties have agreed on treaties.However, just because coexistence agreement is reached doesn’t necessarily meanthat it is valid in legal sense. In fact, the validity of coexistence has something to dowith whether trademark functions can be accomplished. Therefore, the author firstanalyzes two indispensable functions of trademarks: recognition function andeconomic function. Following that, the author deeply addresses the relationshipbetween validity of coexistence agreements and accomplishment of trademarks functions.The third chapter discusses legal effects brought by coexistence agreements.Legal effects should be analyzed in terms of different conditions of coexistenceagreements. In general, legal effects are divided into three parts: relative effects ofevidence, relative infringement defense forces and effects of contracts.