Comparative Research On “Likelihood Of Confusion”in Trademarks Parallel Imports Of China And EU

As an international trade problem,the parallel import of trademarks is handled differently in different countries.This is mainly with the country’s free trade,domestic market trademark rights protection and other issues inseparable.In China,commodity prices are rising year by year due to price,exchange rate and other factors,and parallel import of commodities keeps emerging with the continuous introduction of preferential tariff policies.Whether to restrict the parallel import of goods by strengthening the scope of trademark exclusive right or to relax the restrictions on parallel import is a primary problem facing the customs enforcement department and the judicial department.Parallel importation has been drawn the attention of public with the increasing of free trade zone and rising of new model of business on the E-Commerce platform.In such a context,trademark infringement concerning parallel importation is gradually rampant.On deciding trademark infringement in parallel importation focuses on how to decide the existence of “likelihood of confusion”.Free movement of goods is the spirit guaranteed by Treaty on Functioning the European Union within EU which offers the similar context with the unimpeded trade policy promoted in the 19 th Session of N National Congress of the Communist Party of China.And the different elements involved by European Court of Justice in the preliminary ruling better balance the private interests and public interests and comply with the goal of free trade inside EU.Thus,practices of European Court of Justice toward deciding “likelihood of confusion” in parallel importation can offer good experience for reference in China to meet the needs of new time and new economic condition in China.The text is divided into four chapters:In the first chapter,the writer briefly describes brand goods "confusion possibility" to determine the content and the premise,the content of the judgment is the trademark rights on the same brand in different markets between the real thing will lead to consumers in such aspects as the source of goods,quality confusion,judgment is the premise of the goods involved belong to parallel import in the true sense.This paper integrates the judicial status of parallel import of trademarks in China,summarizes the typical cases in the field of parallel import of trademark commodities in China,and sorts out the judgment thoughts of Chinese courts through analysis.This paper summarizes the current situation of the legislation and judicature of parallel trademark import in the European Union and summarizes the development of the judicial practice of parallel trademark import in the European Union.The second chapter comparative analysis between China and the EU in the judicial practice of parallel import source of confusion that detail that parallel import source of confusion and the theoretical basis of the specific application,through the analysis of our country and the similarities and differences between the EU approach to such a problem,find out the EU’s justice practice reference for our country to handle such problems.For example,the European Union distinguishes legal repackaging from illegal repackaging and establishes clear judgment standards through precedents,while China lacks such provisions in judicial practice.The third chapter makes a comparative analysis of the identification of quality confusion of parallel imported goods in the judicial practice of China and the EU,and expounds in detail the theoretical basis and specific application of the identification of quality confusion of parallel imported goods.In the current judicial practice of China,there are no cases in which there are significant quality differences between parallel imported goods and domestic goods.Through comparative analysis,the author finds some aspects that can be used for reference by our country from the judicial practice of European Union,and gives some Suggestions through summary.The fourth chapter makes a contrastive analysis of the problems in the judicial practice of China and the European Union in the use of trademarks by parallel importers to publicize or directly use the names of other enterprises,which leads to the confusion of consumers on the authorization relationship.In our country,the judge has more discretion in dealing with this kind of problem,so there are many similar cases with opposite judgment.Through the analysis of the fair use system of the trademark of the European Union,it provides reference for the judicial practice of our country to deal with such problems.