On The Legal Validity Of The Trademark Co-existence Agreement

There are two conflicts of interest surrounding the legal validity of the trademark coexistence agreement:the private interest of trademark right holders and the social public interests represented by prevention of confusion.At present,China's theoretical community has always been controversial about the validity of the agreement.Moreover,there are no specific provisions on the legal validity of the agreement in the current"Trademark Law" in China,and the rules for the effectiveness of the agreements in judicial practice have not been unified.This article insists on the view that the allocation of related rights and interests in the trademark system should not only handle the relationship between freedom and order,but also handle the relationship between benefit and fairness.This article attempts to sum up the legislative experience and judicial experience of the legal effectiveness of the existing domestic and foreign trademark coexistence agreements,and to place the agreement in different legal system environments such as the "Contract Law","Trademark Law" and competition law to discuss.The complete legal validity rules system of the existing agreement provides feasible suggestions.The text is divided into the following five chapters:The first chapter is "Overview of the effectiveness of the trademark coexistence agreement".This chapter firstly clarified the concept,characteristics and types of the agreement.Secondly,it discusses the four characteristics of the agreement:1.The pluralism of the entity.2,the diversity of the object.3.Complexity of content 4.Multiplicity of purpose.This section also discusses the function of the trademark coexistence agreement,and the legal nature of the trademark coexistence agreement is a kind of contract,which is intended to provide a theoretical basis for discussing the legal validity of the agreement.Chapter Two,"The Current Status of the Validity Rules of China's Trademark Coexistence Agreement".This chapter discusses the development status of China's trademark coexistence agreement and the status quo and judicial status of the effectiveness of the agreement.Although China's trademark registration authorities and courts have gradually recognized the legal validity of the agreement,the relevant legislative provisions are still insufficient,and the relevant judicial practice is also full of uncertainty.The discussion of the status quo of the effectiveness of the Chinese coexistence agreement is intended to provide guidance for the following discussion of the legal validity of the agreement.The third chapter,"An analysis of the validity requirements of the trademark coexistence agreement in the dimension of different legal systems".This section analyzes the validity requirements of the trademark coexistence agreement under the dimensions of the "Contract Law","Trademark Law" and competition law respectively.First of all,in accordance with the rules of validity of the contract,there are three elements for the demonstration of the trademark coexistence agreement:1.Parties have the ability to dispose of trademark rights;2.The meaning of the parties is true and consistent;3.It does not violate the law and does not harm public interests.Second,in the dimension of the"Trademark Law",an effective trademark coexistence agreement should meet the requirements of "not to violate the "Trademark Law" and "not to harm the interests of consumers".Finally,the competition law's regulation of the effectiveness of the agreement is highlighted in the review of whether the agreement constitutes a monopoly agreement and whether it violates the "Unfair Competition Law".Chapter ?,"The System of the Validity of the Foreign Trade Mark Coexistence Agreement".This chapter uses the comparative research method,which is intended to conduct a comparative analysis of the system of validity of agreements in different legal culture contexts,and to provide reference for the improvement of the rules of validity of our country's trademark coexistence agreements.This section discusses the manifestations of the foreign domain trademark coexistence agreement and analyzes the legislative status and judicial status of the effectiveness of the agreement in the United States,the United Kingdom and the European Union.Among them,in the dimension of "Contract Law",the court fully respects the autonomy of the parties and the validity of the trademark coexistence agreement is based on the principle of the validity of the contract.In the"Trademark Law" dimension,.only the trademark coexistence will lead to confusion.The coexistence agreement is not valid;in the dimension of competition law,the validity of the agreement is determined by whether or not substantive monopoly is caused.Chapter ?,"mprovement of the Validity Rules of China's Trademark Coexistence Agreement".The validity of the coexistence agreement proposed in this chapter should consider the following factors:1.Self-government factors;2.Illegality and social public interest factors;and review of the invalidity of the trademark coexistence agreement.The invalid trademark coexistence agreement mainly includes the following four.Situation:1.The main body of the trademark coexistence agreement is not suitable,2.The trademark coexistence agreement violates the meaning of the real requirement.3.The trademark coexistence agreement violates the mandatory provisions of the law.4.The trademark coexistence agreement damages the public interest.