Research On Registered Trademark Non-Use Cancellation System

Registered Trademark Non-use Cancellation system means registered trademark may be cancelled by the registrar or the court in response to an application for cancellation made by any one on the ground of non-use for certain period and result in the termination of the trademark right.The registered trademark non-use cancellation system(NUC system for short)plays an important role in cleaning the dead trademark and maintaining the vitality of registered trademark.Despite its great development,NUC system in China still has many problems that hinder the system function effectively and even may have bad influence on the fair competition.This article explored historical sources to unearth the development of the NUC system in the world and discuss its significance;summarized the issues of the NUC system in China through empirical analysis of cases in order to provide suggestion for improving NUC system in China.This article is divided into three chapters,the main content of each chapter are as below:The first Chapter traced the historical development of NUC system to analyzes the reasons and purposes for the establishment of NUC system.It turns out that with the development of industrial societies,people began to recognized the nature of trademark as private rights.To avoid dog in the manager,English trademark law had introduced NUC system earlier than other countries and later international treaties also introduced similar regulation to revoke non-use trademark to avoid the non-use trademarks to prevent others' trademark application.The second Chapter explored issues of NUC system in China and sort out main problems.In China,the NUC system is quite advanced after amended for 3 times and have good influence on clearing dead trademarks in practices.But it has some problems that hinder the system function well: the procedure for ensuring and authorization of trademark fails to maintain the theoretical and logical agreement with NUC system;the criteria for the “use” are not the same;there are contradictions in the“reasonable reason”;the procedure is set irrationality result in long litigation cycles and circular litigation leading a dissimilation of the system.The third Chapter discussed the suggestion to solve problem mentioned above.First,provided maintaining the explanation of “use” in current Trademark law of china,it should make a clear division of use requirement between trademark maintainment and trademark infringement.Meanwhile,China should make clear in law that use in the China to avoid cancellation includes affixing the trade mark to goods or to the packaging of goods in the China solely for export purposes.As for the examination of use in NUC cases,user could be the proprietor or with his consent and the standards of actual use intentions and effective use behaviors should be adopted,using the two-step test set by English courts to judge whether the actually used trademarks has changed the distinctive features of the registered mark.When examining the evidence of “use”,the courts should take all relative information into consideration,focusing on the quality of the evidence to eliminating token use.As for the examination of justified reasons,it should be based on the fact that the trademark right holder does not have the intention of abandoning the trademark and there are objective facts that impede the trademark entering into market circulation.Finally,it is proposed to introduce the provision that authorized courts to cancel non-use trademarks directly to reduce the trial procedures for NUC and realize its purpose and avoid becoming a tool for unfair competition.