Study On The Legal Regulation Of Trademark Hijacking

Trademark hijacking refers to the act that the prior trademark registrant,for the purpose of attacking competitors or obtaining monetary compensation,takes the opportunity to initiate a complaint or suit against the unspecified later trademark users.Its actions endanger the interests of the users of the later trademarks and damage the public interests.Trademark hijacking is quite different from trademark malicious rush to register.It is mainly manifested in the following aspects: firstly,the subjective state of the actor is not malicious,but intentional;secondly,the actor's object of action is not a specific obligee,but not a specific user of the posttrademark;thirdly,the actor's purpose is not to transfer the trademark,but to obtain economic compensation or attack.Competitor.Trademark hijackers take advantage of the loopholes in the trademark system to obtain unfair interests,make the trademark remedy system and registration system utilitarian,shake the institutional basis of trademark use,violate the original intention of the establishment of the trademark legal system,harm the interests of the latter trademark users,and restrict other competitors to participate in competition.Therefore,it is necessary to regulate trademark hijacking by law.A series of cases,such as "Caster" trademark case,"Tesla" trademark case and "Gollis" trademark case,reflect the dilemma of legal regulation.The standard of identification of trademark hijacking behavior in China is not clear.However,the problems such as the shortcomings of trademark registration and maintenance system and the imperfection of trademark protection mechanism make trademark hijacking behavior a difficult regulation problem.In view of the dilemma,and drawing on the useful experience of foreign countries,the following suggestions are put forward for the legal regulation of trademark hijacking in China: to establish the standard of identification of trademark hijacking;to use intention as the consideration factor of trademark registration,to establish a fast channel for invalidation declaration,so as to rectify the drawbacks of trademark registration and maintenance system;to improve the mechanism of "notification-deletion" in trademark field,and to use "stop" prudently.We should stop infringement,improve the conditions for affirming non-infringement litigation,establish a punitive compensation system for "malicious hijacking" and improve the trademark protection mechanism.