Study On Solutions To Conflicts Between Rights Of Trademark And Enterprise Name

Conflicts between trademark right and enterprise name right become a realistic problem urgently to be solved. The courts have explored a unique way to balance the interests of two rights, settling disputes. The conflicts between two rights can be summarized into two categories. One is that the businessman snatches brand value of the prior trademark or accumulated reputation of enterprise name, which causes right conflicts of trademark and enterprise name. The other is that the act of using the logo itself is not "free rider", but the conflicts between two rights happen due to historical reasons or earlier trademark of weak significance. Since the legal system is not perfect and the conflict solution is not uniform, the current defects of relevant laws and regulations have incurred the conflicts. The courts have found out a way to solve the conflicts by balancing the interests of two rights. The author studies this problem from the perspective of empirical analysis. Therefore, this paper discusses how the courts resolve the conflicts between trademark right and enterprise name right, based on the scholars’ theory. Meanwhile, the author puts forward proposals of the solution of the conflicts under the relevant legal system.In addition to the introduction, this paper consists of four chapters.The first chapter is the theoretical analysis of the types and causes of conflicts between trademark and enterprise name. Firstly, the paper discusses the relation and difference of the concept and nature of trademark and enterprise name. The author 2 reckons that enterprise name right and trademark right shall belong to intellectual property rights, and are protected and adjusted by the intellectual property law. And then list the types of trademark and enterprise name right conflicts and clear the scope of the study. Secondly, the paper analyzes the reasons why there are conflicts between trademark right and enterprise name right. The author affirms the conflicts between intellectual property rights exist. And then analyze the reasons of the conflicts of trademark right and enterprise name right from two aspects: objective and subjective reasons.The second chapter illustrates the judicial practice cases in court. Firstly, respectively expound the status of legislation and judicial judgments of conflicts of trademark and enterprise name. This chapter teases out the relevant regulations scattered in legal documents, and carries on the statistics of relevant case. Secondly, the section clarifies how the courts identify the infringement of trademark rights. Thirdly, discuss the two main considerations of judging unfair competition behavior: one is violation of the principle of honesty; the other is subjective malice. Finally, find out similarities and differences on judging trademark infringement and unfair competition.The third chapter studies the related legal system in foreign countries. It mainly discusses the legal system of international treaties, Germany, and United States, etc. On the solution of conflicts between trademark right and enterprise name right, we may draw on the practice of legislation from foreign countries. The trademark laws of some countries provide that enterprise name right is also defined as the prior right in order to avoid conflicts. Or there are no provisions of the prior right, and the anti unfair competition laws regulate the right of trademark and enterprise name.The fourth chapter discusses the solutions of right conflicts and legislative proposals. Currently the courts tend to encourage the coexistence of commercial marks on the basis of the principles of honesty and fairness. Therefore, this section describes the condition of coexistence between the registered trademark and the enterprise name. To improve the legal system, the author suggests: firstly, to set up the legislation system of commercial marks; secondly, to improve the anti unfair competition law learning from the foreign legislation, introducing the principle of “prohibition of confusion” and “anti dilution provisions”; thirdly, to closely connect the trademark law with the anti unfair competition law.The innovation of this paper lies in the following points. As for materials, study the judicial documents as the basis to explore the conflict situation of trademark and enterprise name. Compared with other same subjects, the method of this paper is more focused on the empirical research. Solutions are closer to the judicial practice by studying the judicial documents. As for the content, this paper elaborates the coexistence of the two rights as one of the solutions, and the coexistence of the types, conditions and methods are discussed. The paper is not limited to the coexistence between the trademarks as an old topic, but further explores the coexistence between commercial marks.