Restrictive Protection For Trademarks Of Geographical Names

According to the statistics of the public data of China's Judicial Documents Network,the number of infringement disputes on the exclusive right to use geographical names trademarks has been increasing in recent years.However,the particularity of geographical names trademarks has not been paid enough attention in judicial practice.The purpose of this paper is to theoretically explore the legitimacy of restrictive protection of geographical names trademarks,and put forward specific measures to appropriately restrict the protection of geographical names trademarks in judicial practice in view of the problems existing in the recognition of the rational use of geographical names trademarks,the basic mode of restrictive protection.Firstly,the article clearly defines the legal connotations of "place name" and "place name trademark",and analyses the attributes of place name trademark from four perspectives of legitimacy,non-functionality,prominence and first use;secondly,it analyses the effectiveness of existing trademark rights of place name trademark,and on this basis,it protects restrictions from three aspects: interests balance,external economic effects and public domain protection.The legitimacy of protection is discussed,and through the typological analysis of restrictive protection,some problems such as ambiguous definition criteria and different scales are put forward.Furthermore,focusing on the reasonable use of place name trademark,the basic type of restrictive protection in practice,the elements of protection are analyzed,and the disputed judgment of "subjective goodwill" and the coexistence of "confusion possibility" are filled up.Part analysis demonstrates the objective analysis of subjective intention,confusion of possible imputation principles and other issues.Finally,on the basis of the foregoing,combined with judicial practice,the author puts forward some concrete measures with practical significance,such as the determination of compensation under objective criteria,the relaxation of legal sources,the scope of tort compensation,the defense of geographical indications and so on,in the hope of being accepted in the specific judgment,and the place name will be accepted.The restrictive protection of trademarks should be implemented in order to pursue the basic values of balance of interests in intellectual property law.Generally speaking,based on the theoretical analysis of restrictive protection of geographical names trademarks and judicial practice,this paper puts forward specific measures to restrict the protection of geographical names trademark infringement judgments and defenses,in order to make the current judicial practice of the protection system of geographical names trademarks more scientific and reasonable.