The Distribution Of Value-added Interests Of Trademark

The registration system of trademark comes from the use system. Its significance and success are not an accident, and its biggest advantage is that it establishes a publicity system of intangible property, and reduced the possibility of conflicts of trademarks?disorder and confusion. At the same time, it saves the search costs before the emergence of the new trademark and the fee of torts. But the registration of the trademark is not the beginning of the life of the trademark, the life of the trademark is in use, and the use of the trademark adds value to itself. Under normal circumstances, trademark user is also the obligee of the trademark, and the value-added benefits naturally would be owned by the obligee of the trademark, but the trademark user and the obligee of the trademark are always distinguished, as typical cases such as trademark licensing and trademark infringement.In those cases, the court would give the value-added benefits to be obligee of the trademark. In the provisions of the Lanham Act,the initial use interests also belong to the owner of the registered trademark. In 1994 at the University of Wisconsin System case, the judge also thought that if there was not a contract between the licensor of the trademark and licensee of the trademark, and the public had not been cheated, the value-added benefits shall belong to the trademark licensor. In China, in recent years there also appeared several famous cases, where the court thought that the value-added benefits shall belong to the trademark licensor.In these cases, after years of operation, trademark users eventually ended up in helping out for other guys. With the occurrences of this kind of cases, the question of distribution of the value-added interests of trademark has been put in a fierce debate.I mainly discuss in this thesis about the legitimacy of the distribution of the value-added profits of trademarks and its procedures and methods. I also discuss about the various rules of civil law which could be used to solve this problem, and ultimately I choose the principle of balance of interests as the final method, in which I could seek the theoretical support and solutions.The first part defines the connotation of the concept of trademark and the value-added benefits, followed by the introduction of two famous cases which called trademark licensing litigation about “Wang Laoji” and trademark infringement litigation about “Xin Bailun” in China. Through the analysis of two cases, I could be sure that the problems of distribution of value-added benefits do exist. Followed by the labor theory and incentive theory, this thesis expounds the theoretical basis of the distribution of value-added benefits of trademarks.The legitimacy of the trademark value-added distribution of interests can be elaborated from several aspects: first, from the justification of intellectual property theory of both Locke's labor theory of property rightsand incentive theory advocated by scholars, we can find some supportive points: trademark use behaviors produce economic benefits, and the economic interest belongs to laborer-- trademark user.Allocating trademark value-added benefits to the user can also promote the use of the trademark and make the investment flows to the trademarks which have much more potential.At last, the thesis lists several situation of the distribution of value-added benefits.In the second part, the point is mainly on the use of relevant rules of Civil Law and in which the value-added benefit problem is thoroughly discussed.In recent years, there are many scholars in the study of the distribution of value-added benefits, such as Professor Deng Jianzhi, Professor Wang Lianfeng, etc. In order to solve the problem of distribution of benefits, the scholars rely upon theCivil Law to deal with the problem. However, these three systems of Civil Law in our country are not perfect or comprehensive. And as the special rules of civil law, these three systemscan't be used in a case of intellectual property field. Sowe need to find a better way of the intellectual property system to seek a solution. In that way,wecan not only avoid fault of adaptation, but also solve the trademark value-added benefit assignment problemappropriately. At this point, as an important principle of Intellectual Property field,the principle ofinterest balance is used to solve the problem of the balance of value-added benefits of the trademark.Thethird part and the fourth part are the innovation point of this thesis. The difference between this thesis and other similar articlesis that this thesisstarts from the point of view of the principle of balance of interestson the basis of inheritance of the principle of balancing of interests and from the new situation point of view. It's not only a solution to a specific problem, but also a development of the theory. The third part explains what the principle of balance of interests is at first, thenanalyses the structure of the balance of interests in the relationship of trademark appreciation, and then discusses the legitimacy of the principle of balance of interests in the issue of value-added benefits distribution. In the fourth part, it illustrates the prospect and specific application situation, procedure and method.The third part firstly explained what the principle of balance of interests is and opinions of jurists about the practicability of balance of interests, followed by analysis of the structure of the balance of interests. In the relationship of trademark rights, the principle of balance of interests is mainly related to three aspects of interests: the trademark owner, the trademark user and consumers. The interest of trademark owner is the foundation of the construction of the system of trademark rights, and the interest of competitor delineates the scope of the interest of trademark owner, and the interest of consumers is the end-result of the trademark. At last, it discusses the importance of applying the principle of balance of interests in the value-added benefit assignment problem.For protecting the interests of all parties, allocating the value-added benefits to user can make trademark ownergets deserved interests, and can also protect the use of trademark business behavior, while consumers can obtain a market which is full of excellent products. Then, from the point of view of the state, the distribution of value-added benefits can make the capital flows to the some companies which have potential, so that the domestic goods can grow into internationalbrands.The fourth part begins with the introduction of the social and economic effects of the application of the balance of interests. Then, the thesis gives a detailed analysis of several cases in which we should distribute the interests among trademark owner and user, as well as the procedure and method we distribute interests under the principle's guidance. To make the interests of the three parties achieve a relative balance, we need to distinguish the interests of three parties and the order of interests, and meet the needs of all parties from high to low according to the interests order. Whenconflict between the different parties' interests appears, distribution of interests needs to be based on the contribution to the trademark. Because that the specific distribution of value-added benefits of the trademark belongs to accounting knowledge, and this thesis only discusses the legal aspects of the problem, so this thesis only takes a brief exposition of accounting knowledge.