Research On The Protection Of Single Color Trademark

With the continuous development of commerce,more and more new trademark forms are bred,developed and perfected in the market,and finally protected by trademark law.Compared with the non-traditional trademarks,the single color trademark is recognized and protected by the Trademark Law of all countries in the world because of its highly effective characteristics of attracting consumers' attention.After 40 years of reform and development,the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics has been greatly developed.China has completely changed from material scarcity to material prosperity.In the face of a wide range of commodities,as a commodity provider,we hope to attract consumers' attention quickly with the help of color.As a consumer,we also hope to select the desired commodities efficiently with the help of color.For example,Wang Laoji of red tank,jiaduobao of gold tank,Xiaolan bike,meituan of yellow,etc.,a large number of single color commercial applications have appeared in Chinese market,and it can be predicted that more and more single color commercial applications will appear.But unfortunately,because of the lack of clear regulations on how to protect single color in our trademark law,there are many disputes in the theory of trademark law,which makes the protection of single color trademark in our country difficult.Many excellent single colors are not protected by the trademark law,which connived at the behavior of the plagiarists,and greatly strikes the enthusiasm of businesses to cultivate their own commercial colors.This paper holds that we should face up to the problems related to the protection of single color trademark and establish an effective trademark protection system inChina as soon as possible.The first chapter puts forward the current situation of single color trademark protection and the problems in Chinese protection practice.First of all,the concept of single color trademark is introduced.Single color is composed of solid color without fixed shape and specific use position.The solid color is attached to commodities,commodity packaging or web pages,signboards and other places to distinguish the source of commodities or services.Secondly,it introduces the query and response in the history of single color trademark protection.This paper falsifies the theory of "color exhaustion" and the theory of "color difference confusion",and concludes that the protection of single color trademark law is legitimate.Finally,it analyzes the current situation of single color trademark protection in China,and analyzes the current problems of single color trademark protection from the legislative level and judicial practice level.On the one hand,the status of single color in China's trademark law is vague,on the other hand,there is no clear protection standard in practice due to the lack of clear registrable status.The second chapter analyzes the registration requirements of single color trademark.Based on the protection practice experience of European and American countries,this paper analyzes the elements that a single color needs to meet to obtain trademark registration,including written expression,significance and non functionality.Among them,the written expressiveness requires that the application of a single color trademark is clear and definite,and the scope of the right will not be blurred due to the wording or form problems.In terms of significance,because the decorative use of a single color generally does not have inherent significance,only the significance can be registered.This paper analyzes the rules of evidence of significance in China and combines The comparison of "second meaning" standards in American trademark law induces the standard of proving the significance of single color.Finally,it analyzes the judgment standard of non functional requirements of trademark and the situation that single color can have practical function and aesthetic function.The third chapter is based on the study of the protection of single colortrademark,and puts forward the suggestion of establishing the protection system of single color trademark in China.First,it analyzes the necessity of single color protection,points out that the efficiency of color in commodity identification is high,and the application of color in commerce will only become more and more popular.The protection of single color trademark has more advantages than the protection of anti unfair competition law.It points out that domestic enterprises will fall into disadvantage if we do not establish a single color protection system in China.Then it puts forward some suggestions on the protection of single color in China,such as clarifying the open interpretation of trademark registrable elements,improving the single color significance and functional review,and improving the single color publicity procedures.