The Legal Effect Of The Extraterritorial Use Of EU Trademarks And Its Enlightenment

Trademark law has regional characteristics,and trademark use also has regional requirements.Whether the use of a trademark outside the territory of a country has the legal effect of a trademark in that country has become a difficult point in dealing with the issue of the extraterritorial use of trademarks in all countries.From the specific form of trademark use,the legal effect of the extraterritorial use of trademarks is worth studying: first,the legal effect of the extraterritorial use of trademarks in trademark registration procedures,that is,whether the extraterritorial use of unregistered trademarks in the territory of a country has the legal effect on the registration of trademarks within the scope of resistance;second,in the maintenance of trademark rights,the extraterritorial use of trademarks in the system of revocation of the use of trademarks does not play a role in maintaining the legal effect of trademark rights the territory of that country;third,in the judgment of trademark infringement,whether the extraterritorial use of trademarks constitutes infringement.In order to maintain the unified internal market of the European Union and promote the innovation and development of intellectual property rights in the European Union,the trademark law of the European Union breaks through the restriction of the regional nature of the trademark to a certain extent,and adopts the strict protection policy of the trademark.First of all,with regard to the legal effect of the extraterritorial use of a trademark in trademark registration,the right to determine the prior use of an unregistered trademark in the judicial trial of a trademark in the European Union must be in the territory where the right exists,while requiring the unregistered trademark to have market influence beyond the area of use in the European Union and to be known to consumers outside the specific area,thus negating the legal effect of the prior use of a simple extraterritorial trademark on the registration of a trademark in the domain.Secondly,the EU trademark law breaks through the regional restrictions on the use of trademarks in the maintenance of trademark rights,and stipulates that the export behavior also belongs to the use of trademarks in the EU,thus maintaining the registered trademark rights in the EU.Finally,for the extraterritorial trademark infringement,the EU trademark law breaks through the regional restriction of trademark,and brings the extraterritorial trademark infringement on the Internet and the infringement of the EU trademark right in the import and export trade into the scope of the EU trademark law.The study of the rules on the extraterritorial use of EU trademarks has reference value for China.For the reason of the regional nature of trademark right,there are no systematic rules on the extraterritorial use of trademark in Chinese legislation and judicial practice,and the applicable standards in judicial trial are not uniform.For example,with regard to the legal effect of foreign-related licensing processing,China denies that the foreign-related licensing processing of unregistered trademarks is used as a trademark in the trademark acquisition process,and then denies that it has the legal effect on trademark registration in the trademark acquisition process;in the maintenance of trademark rights,it also recognizes the foreign-related licensing processing of registered trademarks as trademark use and maintains the trademark right;in the latest judgment of trademark infringement,the court also recognizes the foreign-related licensing processing of infringing trademarks as trademark infringement.China's trademark law should refer to the successful experience of the EU trademark law and gradually recognize the legal effect of the extraterritorial use of trademarks in legislation and judicial trials.