Study Of The Trademark Extension Registration In China

In the fierce market environment,enterprise brand extension is increasingly prevalent,resulting in more and more legal disputes about trademark extension registration.The study of trademark extension registration can not only respond to the development needs of enterprises in a reasonable and legal manner,but also help guide the legal practice of trademark law enforcement and judicature.Therefore,this paper uses empirical research and comparative analysis to study the basic theory,object and constitutive requirements of trademark extension registration,and constructs our trademark extension registration system and proposes corresponding legislative and judicial countermeasures.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the full text is divided into four parts.The first part analyzes the judicial status and dilemma of trademark extension registration.By selecting 140 judgments as research samples,this paper refines the following problems in practice: firstly,the courts have different attitudes towards whether there is an extended relationship between different registered trademarks,which leads to serious different judgments in the same case;secondly,the conditions for the application of extended trademark registration are vague,which are manifested in different main elements,different requirements for the use of extended trademarks and different subjective elements;thirdly,it is difficult to determine the popularity of trademarks,which leads to the lack of criteria for determining the popularity;fourthly,the relationship between the similarity of trademarks and the possibility of confusion is unclear,which leads to different recognition of the legitimacy of extended trademark registration;and fifthly,in judicial practice,the courts have different recognition standards and consider different factors.The fundamental reason for the above problems is that the Trademark Law of our country does not provide for trademark extension registration,and the existing Trademark Law is not clear enough for approximation and confusion.The second part explains the noumenon of trademark extension registration system.Based on the basic theory of trademark law,this paper studies the connotation,types and essence of trademark extension registration,and holds that the trademark extension registration system can make up for the deficiency of the existing trademark registration system in protecting the goodwill of the basic trademark and protect the goodwill of the basic trademark.Trademark extension registration is a kind of right to apply for trademark registration at the stage of trademark registration application.It belongs to the registration system and is a new type of registration for the protection of special interests.The third part analyzes the constitutive requirements of trademark extension registration system.This part defines the object of trademark extension registration and analyzes its types.Through typological analysis,the objects of extended trademark registration are divided into the following four categories: first,trademarks that are similar to the basic trademarks on the same goods,second,trademarks that are identical with the basic trademarks on similar goods,third,trademarks that are similar to the basic trademarks on similar goods,and fourth,trademarks that are identical with the well-known trademarks on cross-category goods.The protection conditions of four different kinds of objects are compared and analyzed.Based on the theoretical analysis of the object,it is proposed that an extended trademark can be registered only if the following conditions are met simultaneously: first,the general conditions of the trademark registration system,namely,the subject condition,the recognition condition and the obstruction condition;second,the basic trademark has certain popularity;third,the extended trademark meets the conditions for the continuation of goodwill;fourth,it does not cause confusion with the trademark of others;and fifth,the applicant for the extended trademark is in good faith subjectively.The fourth part puts forward the legislative and judicial countermeasures to construct our trademark extension registration system.Firstly,the provisions on trademark extension registration shall be added to the legislation to provide a legislative basis for trademark extension registration,and the provisions of Articles 30 and 31 of the Trademark Law shall be revised at the same time to clarify the standards for the possibility of confusion;secondly,the Supreme People’s Court shall not only formulate the judicial interpretations relating to trademark extension registration,unify the standards for judicial recognition,but also issue guiding cases to determine typical cases and provide guidance for the resolution of similar cases;finally,the supporting policies for trademark extension registration shall be added,such as formulating specific examination rules for trademark extension registration,establishing the inquiry notification system for protecting the interests of the relevant subjects,requiring the extended trademark applicants to make credit statements at the time of application,and introducing the trademark coexistence agreement mechanism to avoid confusion.