Research On The Influence Of Coexistence Agreement On Trademark Registration

Trademark has become an important intangible asset in the market economy.But the meaning of good,easy to remember the trademark resources are extremely limited,making it easy for different operators to design the same or similar trademark.In addition,because of the geographical restrictions of trademark rights andthe expansion of the original business scope of multinational companies,different commodity categories of the same or similar trademarks come into the same market.In order to avoid trademark disputes or to reach the purpose of peaceful coexistence of other conflicting trademarks,trademark rights holders in developed countries such as the United Kingdom,the United States and France usually enter into trademark coexistence agreement so that make provision for same or similar trademark disputes.With the development of China's market economy,trademark coexistence agreement has gradually become one of the usual means to resolve trademark registration conflict and prevent trademark infringement in China's market economy,but it is difficult to be stable and effective under China's trademark law environment.This may be due to the lag of our legislation,the lack of clear legal provisions on the validity of the coexistence agreement,leading the current trademark authorization and the judicial authorities not to form unite opinion about whether coexistence agreement affects trademark registration.The purpose of this study is to explore the institutional problems faced by the existence of trademark coexistence agreements in China,to systematically sort the administrative review decisions and judicial decisions on trademark coexistence agreements,and to draw lessons from the legislation and judicial precedents of foreign or other regions on trademark coexistence agreements.Under the background of China's current "Trademark Law",from the legislation,justice,enforcement,the study offers some advices about the building of China's trademark coexistence agreement mechanism.This study uses the documentary analysis method,the comparative research method and the empirical research method synthetically.By reading a large number of scholars of the paper works,analysis,induction,summary,the study has a specific understanding of China's trademark coexistence agreement mechanism.Further systematically sorting the administrative decision and judicial decision,the study analyzes the standard and the consideration factor of the domestic coexistence agreement.On the basis of this study,the study puts forward some legislative and judicial suggestions in line with China's national conditions and market development and demand from the legislation and judicial practice of the trademark coexistence agreement in Europe and the United States or other regions experience.In the view of the study,"likelihood of confusion" is to determine the trademark infringement standard and the core of trademark registration standards,but also is the premise of the legal coexistence of trademark.Reference to foreign legislation on coexistence agreements and judicial experience,in terms of legislation,clearly regards the coexistence agreement as the element of the determination of "likelihood of confusion".Article 30 of the Trademark Law may be amended to read as follows: " If a trademark for which a registration application is filed fails to comply with the relevant provisions of this Law or is identical or similar to other's trademark that has been registered preliminarily approved for use on the same or similar goods,the Trademark Office shall reject the application.However,with the permission of the registered trademark right-holder and the right-holder of the prior application of trademark and without improper acts,the application of the similar trademark will be approved by the Trademark Office.In the judicial practice,uniforming trademark authorization administrative department and the judiciary organ in judging the impact of coexistence agreements on trademark registrations: without prejudice to the function of trademark recognition,the public interest and fair competition,the authorization shall approve the registration of similar trademark in accordance with the coexistence agreement of the parties.