Study On The Validity Identification Of Trademark Coexistence Agreement

The coexistence of trademarks has become a common phenomenon in the current market economy.Signing a trademark coexistence agreement has become a common choice for market entities to maintain their competitive advantages and peacefully resolve trademark conflicts or disputes.Especially in foreign countries,the trademark coexistence agreement has become a way of peacefully coexisting between the business entities with similar trademarks in the business process.With the increase in the number of trademark applications in China,a large number of trademarks at the trademark application stage have been rejected by the CRIC because they are the same as or similar to the earlier cited trademarks.It is of practical significance to use the trademark coexistence agreement to achieve the coexistence of two similar trademarks.In the process of trademark application registration examination,the trademark applicant submits the trademark coexistence agreement to the examination authority in order to eliminate the obstacles from the earlier cited trademark.Can the trademark coexistence agreement make the subsequent trademarks approved for registration? How to determine the validity of a trademark coexistence agreement,is it valid or invalid? How does a trademark coexistence agreement affect confusion? These issues still have a great deal of controversy in practice.The trademark coexistence agreement appears frequently in the trademark review process,but the attitude of the trademark review authority and the court to the trademark coexistence agreement is unclear.As a result,trademark applicants filed a large number of administrative litigations for refusal of trial.In judicial practice,the attitude towards the trademark coexistence agreement has also gone through a process of never accepting it gradually.There is no legal basis for determining the validity of a trademark coexistence agreement.The competent trademark authorities and judicial authorities have different views on the trademark coexistence agreement in the same case.Regarding the above issues,there are also differences and disputes between the trademark examination authorities and the courts in practice,which leads to greater instability in determining the validity of the coexistence consent and the confusion of the trademark.This article believes that in determining the effectiveness of a trademark coexistence agreement,the parties’ will and the protection of public interests should be taken into account,but the scope ofprotection of public interests cannot be expanded at will.The judgment of the trademark examination authority on the confusion should be proved by evidence,rather than merely a subjective presumption of the possibility of confusion without the actual actual market support,and directly denying the trademark coexistence agreement submitted by the applicant.The content of the first chapter of this article is based on the definition of the trademark coexistence agreement and its legal nature,and considers it to be a contract in essence.It also discusses the origin of the phenomenon of trademark coexistence and the value of the existence of the trademark coexistence agreement,which is a matter of trademark rights.The protection of rights can also save certain judicial resources.Section III raises the problem of lack of legal norms in the determination of the effectiveness of trademark coexistence agreements in China’s current trademark examination procedures and judicial practice.These most basic contents provide a theoretical basis for the discussion of subsequent issues.The second chapter explores the various conditions that an effective trademark coexistence agreement should have from the current laws and regulations related to trademark coexistence in China.This chapter mainly focuses on the elements of the contract in the "Contract Law" that the trademark coexistence agreement should satisfy,that is,the parties agree on the meaning,and the signing subject is in a state of goodwill,and then from the "Prohibition of Confusion" and "Unfairness" in China’s "Trademark Law" The effects of competition law on the effectiveness of trademark coexistence agreements are discussed in terms of the trademark coexistence agreements.Clarifying the relationship between these parties is conducive to establishing the criteria for determining trademark coexistence agreements.The third chapter is a comparative study of the determination of trademark coexistence agreements.This chapter lists the attitudes to trademark coexistence agreements in trademark review procedures in other countries,relevant legislation on trademark coexistence agreements,and a large number of classic judicial cases.Because the phenomenon of trademark coexistence originates outside the territory,the factors examined by foreign countries in different cases on the trademark coexistence agreement can provide certain enlightenment for the validity determination of the trademark coexistence agreement.China can adopt a model of relative effectiveness of the trademark coexistence agreement similar to the United States.The fourth chapter mainly collects the cases of trademark coexistence agreementsin the past ten years.In a large number of administrative litigations of trademark reexamination,trademark review authorities and different courts have put forward different views on the determination of the effectiveness of trademark coexistence agreements.Viewpoint of the trademark coexistence agreement.The prior right system in the Trademark Law indicates that coexistence of trademarks is allowed in China,but to achieve coexistence through an agreement,certain standards need to be established,and the determination of the effectiveness of a coexistence agreement also needs to establish a relatively certain standard for judging trademark confusion.By studying the status quo of determining the validity of trademark coexistence agreements in China,we can clarify the current difficulties and some misunderstandings in determining the effectiveness of trademark coexistence agreements in China,which can provide some guidance for the discussion of improving the rules for determining trademark coexistence agreements.The content of Chapter 5 is "Proposals to Improve the Standards for Identifying Trademark Coexistence Agreements in China".This chapter mainly points out that the standards for determining the validity of trademark coexistence agreements should be clarified through judicial interpretation.Trademark authorities should review coexistence agreements from a development perspective.The effectiveness of the agreement can even guide the trademark coexistence agreement into a system to strengthen the management of trademarks that achieve coexistence through the agreement.