Study Of The "Other Harmful Effects" Clause In Trademark Law

In today's world,trademark is becoming an increasingly important strategic resource,causing more and more legal disputes related to trademark.Ownership affirmation dispute of the"WeChat"trademark in the recent two years has raised much attention.The first instance judgement of"WeChat"case applies Article 10 first paragraph item?8?of Trademark Law,that is the so called"other harmful effects":"Those detrimental to socialist morals or customs,or having other harmful effects".This is a clause that has been discussed for a long time,its application was changed from comparatively broad scope to strictly limited scope and then to appropriately extended scope.There has been some debate about the"other harmful effects"clause for a long time,there are some problems of legislative defects as well as legal application problems.On April 20^th,2016,the Beijing municipal higher people's court announce the second trial for"WeChat"case,conclude that the challenged trademark application is not a violation against the regulation in Article 10first paragraph item?8?of Trademark Law,but considering the application of the challenged trademark on certain service lack of distinctiveness which is required in trademark application,thus citing the judgment to reject the appeal and upheld the formal trial.The second trial is considered to be indicated a stricter application of the jurisdiction organ on"other harmful effects"clause.This shows that"other harmful effects"clause has many problems in both legislation and legal application.This thesis has done some research based on this case,there are 5 part in this thesis.First part is introduction on research purpose,and significance.It also introduces current research status both abroad and at home.The second part introduced the"WeChat"trademark case to give the current related regulation of"other harmful effects"clause a more detailed oversight,give a propose on the application of the"other harmful effects"clause,including definition of public interests,application scope and its relation with the principle of good faith,etc.In the third part,there is a brief introduction of current application status of"other harmful effects"from the perspective of Trademark Office,trade review and appraisal board and courts,and introduces the history of expanding application of the clause,then propose and analyze the problems of the clause in application,including the outrange application of the save clause,the confusion in application of principle of good faith,confusion in cognitions of object of"harmful effects"and public interest protected by this clause.The forth part include the analysis and conclusion of the application rule of"other harmful effects"clause,including the overall judgment rule,"focus on the meaning of itself"rule,"actual damage not demanded"rule and"malicious intention not demanded"rule,and conclude the situation which should not apply to this clause.The fifth part includes some suggestion to improve"other harmful effects"from the perspective of legislation,law revision,legal application,etc?...