Study On The Infringement Of Geographical Indication Certification Marks

In China,the development of geographical indication products with regional characteristics is one of the important ways to help regional economic growth and precisely achieve poverty eradication.According to the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law,China registers and protects geographical indications as certification trademarks or collective trademarks.Therefore,the geographical indication certification trademark is an important form of geographical indication protection in China,which has the dual attributes of geographical indication and certification trademark,indicating that the goods with certain special qualities come from a certain area,and is generally named by the place name plus the common name.However,according to the requirements of China’s Trademark Law,if the registered trademark contains the common name of the goods or contains the geographical name of the goods,the exclusive owner of the registered trademark has no right to prohibit others from using it properly.At the same time,due to the imperfect establishment of the protection system of geographical indications in China,there are many controversies in the legal protection of geographical indications,and there are also many inconsistencies in the criteria of infringement determination in theory and judicial practice,which affect the uniformity and standardization of legal application.This thesis takes a case study as the starting point and takes "Xiantao Fragrant Rice","Aksu Apple","Xihu Longjing","Zhoushan Striped Bass" and other series of infringement cases as examples to summarize the main controversial points in disputes over the infringement of geographical indications."The main controversial points in the disputes over infringement of geographical indications are summarized,namely,the differences in the determination of trademark similarity,the controversial application of likelihood of confusion,and the lack of clear definition of legitimate use.After analyzing the relevant system and drawing on the relevant provisions of foreign laws,this thesis believes that in determining the similarity of geographical indications,it is necessary to first determine the core elements of the trademark,and then follow the principle that(1)when the constitutive elements of the trademark are similar,it is possible to directly determine the similarity of the trademark and no longer use the reason of "not causing confusion and misunderstanding to the relevant public".(2)if the constituent elements of a trademark are not similar in nature,but are likely to lead to confusion and misunderstanding by the relevant public because of the high credibility of an existing trademark,the confusion factor should be fully considered(3)If a trademark has multiple constituent requirements and the similarity of each constituent element is not significant individually,but there is a likelihood of confusion and misidentification of the trademark as a whole,the individual confusion factors should be fully considered and analyzed in the overall context.Secondly,the likelihood of confusion is the basic principle followed by trademark law in infringement determination,coupled with the prohibition of confusion as a general principle for the protection of geographical indication certification marks under foreign laws,therefore,the infringement determination of geographical indication certification marks should be based on the likelihood of confusion,and the content of confusion can be extended to the confusion of origin and quality.Again,based on the theory of proper use of trademark,combined with the analysis of the types of proper use in infringement cases,this thesis believes that the proper use of the trademark should consider the following factors: First,the premise of use: it can only be the use of the geographical names contained therein.Second,the way of use: it can only be the "proper" use of the place name contained therein.Third,the corresponding burden of proof should be borne.Finally,this thesis,on the one hand,proposes the construction of a collaborative protection mechanism by administrative means,such as a unified examination system and a dynamic supervision system,and on the other hand,puts forward specific suggestions for improving the main controversial focus of infringement determination in judicial practice so as to provide ideas for the protection and infringement determination of geographical indication certification marks.