Regulation Of The Trademark Squatting Behavior Of Specific Folklore Names

The name of folklore is an important symbol of folklore,and its commercial value is gradually being explored.More and more merchants have preemptively registered such names as common trademarks for exclusive use.The recent case of “Ha Ni Gu Ge” and “Qing Ping Zhu Ma” have brought up some questions.Can the name of folklore similar to “Ha Ni Gu Ge” be registered as a trademark? If so,what happens if an individual or enterprise pre-registers and monopolizes the name of a folklore like“Ha Ni Gu Ge”? If not,how should the Trademark Office,the Trademark Review Board and the court handle this preemptive registration behavior? In order to solve the above problems,the first part of the article introduces the problem with the case of “Ha Ni Gu Ge”;the second part analyzes the status quo of the registration of the trademark of the specific folklore names;the third part analyzes whether the rules of trademark squatting in China’s existing legal system can be used to regulate the squatting of specific folklore names.It is found that there are problems in the regulation of such specific objects.The reason is the applicable controversy of the rules themselves and the characteristics of such names themselves.For example,the application and interpretation of the “other adverse effects” clause is highly controversial,which leads to doubts about the squatting behavior in the case of“Ha Ni Gu Ge” and“Qing Ping Zhu Ma”.The fourth part mainly discusses the proposal to regulate the behavior of squatting specific folklore names as a trademark.This dissertation believes that no matter from its meaning,origin and trademark law system,the“other adverse effects” clause regulates that the logo itself or its constituent elements violate the principle of public order and good customs,and the specific folklore names itself does not violate the principle.Therefore,the adverse impact clause is not the most accurate rule to regulate such behavior.Conversely,the “other improper means of obtaining registration” clause aims at the behavior itself which violates the principle of public order and good customs,which should be a more accurate clause for regulating the preemptive registration of name trademarks belonging to group public resources.For the limitations of the applicable procedures for this clause,this dissertation proposes to include the “other improper means” clause as one of the grounds for dissent,with a view to breaking the limitations of the application of the improper means clause to a certain extent.In addition,in order to timely and comprehensively regulate the squatting behavior of specific folklore name trademarks,the relevant government departments should actively fulfill their responsibilities of protecting folklore,establish a mechanism to prevent the squatting of trademarks of folklore names,and promptly prevent the folklore names trademarks from being squatted in the stage of trademark authorization and trademark disputes.