How To Deal With The Conflict Between The Enterprise Name And The Registered Trademark?

Some consumers pay attention to trade marks when buying goods. If the quality of goods is good, they will know about the production enterprises, while some consumers may trust some production enterprises and pay little attention to the trademarks of their products. However, when the name of a company conflicts with the name of the trademark, it may confuse some consumers. In this case, there may also be legal disputes between the manufacturing enterprises. How to face the situation, the trademark lawyers explain you through specific cases.

The market economy encourages enterprises to operate independently and take profits and losses. Of course, some enterprises have been developing rapidly under the favorable economic policies of the state, and some enterprises are trying to make profits through free riding. In this case, the cases of enterprise name and trademark conflict are not uncommon, and trademark lawyers have undertaken such a case.

Last year, a company hired me as their legal adviser. The company's main products are relays and other products. We call it A company for the time being. A has been doing relay products for some years. Its relay products are of good quality and have certain influence in the industry. In order to better manage their products, A applied for trademark a few years ago. After several years of use, A's trademark has already had some influence. After an employee of A company resigned from A, he also wanted to produce relay products, and registered a company B. B sells products like A, but the quality of its products is very poor. The font size in the name of B company uses the same characters as the trademark of A company. We know that the name of an enterprise is usually composed of administrative divisions, name, trade and organizational form, and the name is the main identifying part of the enterprise name. Business names and trademarks are all commercial signs. Though they are used in different ways, they may still cause confusion at some point. Sure enough, after a while, some customers found A company with some poor products produced by B company, and asked A company to replace and repair it. At this point, A only discovered the seriousness of the problem. In this case, what should A company do?

Actually, this situation is quite different now. In China's commercial activities, there are no cases of illegal hitchhiking. The law has regulated many aspects of the free riding behavior against business ethics. For example, according to the provisions of the trademark law, enterprises can not register trademarks that are registered trademarks of others, nor can they register trademarks similar to others' registered trademarks. However, in practice, various kinds of free riding behavior emerge one after another. A company encountered B company's trademark registration as the name of the enterprise. This type of case has been found in all walks of life, and the court has already had relevant precedents.

In 2003, Suzhou Logitech Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Suzhou Logitech") brought Guangzhou Logitech Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou Logitech") to court. Suzhou Logitech is a trademark of Logitech. Registrant Guangzhou Logitech uses Logitech as the name of the company's name and highlights Logitech's brand name in the publicity process. Suzhou Logitech thinks Guangzhou Logitech's behavior constitutes unfair competition. The court found that the "Logitech" trademark has a high reputation in the market. Guangzhou Logitech has failed to make a reasonable explanation for its registration of Logitech as an enterprise name. As a competitor in the same industry, Guangzhou Logitech will be used as an enterprise brand with the same registered trademark of Logitech, which has been used by Suzhou Logitech, and used in the same or similar commodities. It will easily cause misunderstandings to the relevant public, and may damage the legitimate rights and interests of competitors in other industries. According to the principle of fairness and honesty and credit, the behavior of Logitech in Guangzhou constitutes unfair competition. Guangzhou Logitech stopped using its enterprise name and went through the procedures of changing the name of the enterprise to the industrial and commercial registration authority.

The decisions of such cases are based on the provisions of the anti unfair competition law and the Supreme People's Court on certain issues concerning civil disputes involving the trial of registered trademarks, enterprise names and prior rights. The second provision of "Anti Unfair Competition Law" stipulates: "operators should abide by the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, honesty and credibility and abide by generally accepted business ethics in market spanactions. The unfair competition referred to in this Law means operator Violation of the provisions of this law, damaging the legitimate rights and interests of other business operators and disrupting social and economic order. " The fourth article of the provisions of the Supreme People's Court on cases of civil disputes concerning registered trademarks, enterprise names and conflicts of prior rights stipulates that: "the name of the accused enterprise infringes on the exclusive right to use the registered trademark or constitutes unfair competition, the people's court may determine the civil liability for the defendant to stop using and standardize the use of the case according to the plaintiff's litigation request and the specific case." In practice, such cases are basically handled in accordance with unfair competition cases, and are usually intertwined with cases of infringement of trademark rights. Because people often choose other people's trademark with a certain reputation, as the name of the enterprise, the purpose is to create confusion for consumers and hitch a ride. So apart from Registered enterprise Apart from the name, the perpetrator often tries to establish a relationship with the trademark in publicity and presentation, which may infringe the trademark right of others.

In the case of conflict between enterprise name and trademark, it often causes adverse effects and even heavy losses to the trademark owner. In May 22, 2012, the government of Foshan Gaoming District announced to the public that "a large seasoning company" used the industrial salt instead of edible salt to produce soy sauce products, that is, the poisonous soy sauce incident, which immediately aroused public concern. In May 23rd, the Gaoming District Government of Foshan held an urgent press conference to clarify that the "large seasoning company" is Foshan Gaoming Ming Wei flavor condiment Co., Ltd., but public opinion is still speculated that there is a correlation between Foshan Haitian condiment company and Wei Ji company. Haitian sauce is a well-known commodity produced by Haitian condiment company. Its "Haitian" brand is well-known trademark. Haitian condiment company also has another "Wei Chi" trademark, and produces Wei Chi brand soy sauce and vinegar. Due to the impact of the toxic soy sauce incident, according to Haitian condiment company, its sales fell by 15% to 20%. Haitian condiment company brought the Wei Chi condiment Co., Ltd. to court. The court ruled that Wei Wei condiment Co., Ltd. lost the lawsuit, and no longer used "Wei Ji" as the enterprise name, and compensated Haitian condiment company 6 million 550 thousand yuan. Although Haitian condiment company has won the lawsuit, the execution of the case will take some time. Finally, whether or not the Wei Chi condiment company is able to compensate is unknown. The loss of Haitian condiment company has happened, but this is a fact of iron.

When A company discovered the behavior of B company, I immediately gave my lawyer's advice: in view of the fact that the trademark of A company has already gained a certain reputation, B will register the same brand name as the name of the enterprise name, and deliberately confuse the relationship with A company in the propaganda, which has constituted unfair competition. It is suggested that A company take legal action immediately to prosecute B company for unfair competition, and request B company to compensate the loss and change the name of the enterprise.