"Ding Zhen" and other trademarks were maliciously registered. The State Intellectual Property Bureau responded: strike hard

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Surging news noted that in response to the confusion of trademark registration and hoarding concerned by readers and netizens, the State Intellectual Property Office has made continuous responses and work arrangements recently, saying that it has been paying high attention to and strengthening rectification, and will further strengthen the crackdown on malicious trademark registration.

Huawei's core chips were scrambled by partners, causing disputes and lawsuits; Some media accused "today's fried dough sticks" of being near famous brands; Young Ding Zhen, who suddenly became popular, was "robbed" by trademark registrants... Recently, the news in the trademark field has been hot, and waves of "hitchhiking" and "near famous brands" have attracted widespread attention

"At present, the phenomenon of trademark registration following the trend has run counter to the original meaning of trademarks." Ma Dongxiao, a well-known intellectual property lawyer, told surging news (www.thepaper.cn), "trademark registration is for use, not for speculation" is the direction established by the revision of the trademark law in 2019, "the value of trademarks lies in use, and a consensus should be formed in all sectors of society"

Surging news noted that in response to the confusion of trademark registration and hoarding concerned by readers and netizens, the State Intellectual Property Office has made continuous responses and work arrangements recently, saying that it has been paying high attention to and strengthening rectification, and will further strengthen the crackdown on malicious trademark registration. The Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office also said that in the next step, it will concentrate on examination, further shorten the cycle of trademark examination, improve the quality of trademark examination, and severely crack down on malicious trademark registration and hoarding. At the same time, it will improve the trademark examination system and improve the standardization, standardization and rule of law of trademark work

"Trademark hooligans" recklessly harm the digital economy

On December 5, the data released at the 12th China International Trademark and brand Festival showed that from January to October this year, the number of trademark applications in China was 7.568 million and the number of trademark registrations was 4.645 million. By the end of October this year, the number of effective registered trademarks in China was 29.182 million, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years

However, behind the soaring number of trademarks, the problem of trademark malicious preemption and hoarding has a long history, which is difficult to cure, and has intensified in recent years

In September this year, Shaolin Temple applied for the registration of 666 trademarks, including alcohol related trademarks, which raised concerns about different trademark examination standards. Some media accused "today's dough sticks" of infringement, and Huawei's core chip mobile computing architecture "hIaI" was preempted by its partners, triggering a trademark battle that lasted for several years. Behind it is the common pain of many enterprises, that is, the trademark encountered fancy free rider preemption, which is common and has become a persistent disease

Recently, young Ding Zhen and Ma Baoguo, who have suddenly become popular, have been "looted" by trademark registrants with hundreds of applications for registration. An unannounced interview with surging news found that behind the chaos of popular online and hot words in trademark application, speculation in trademarks was also "surging". A company applying for the "Ding Zhen" trademark in Hunan offered 188000 yuan before the trademark certificate came down; A company in Zhengzhou has just applied for the trademark of "rat tail juice", which means that it can be licensed for use at a price of 10000 yuan / year

"The gray industrial chain of malicious trademark registration continues to renovate its routine, and is spreading to the emerging Internet industry and the field of digital economy, seriously undermining the business order." Relevant intellectual property experts said that after the name of online celebrity was registered, the registrants demanded authorization fees from online celebrity, or coerced them to buy trademarks at a high price. Similar cases have been common and need to be strictly dealt with

For example, after the name of Jing Hanqing, the online celebrity of 9million fans of station B, was registered as a trademark by an enterprise, he was asked to stop using the name and threatened to contact various platforms for closure; Kwai's 10million fan user "mother Liu" was rushed by Shandong jiuyantang Trading Co., Ltd. and asked for a loss of 2million yuan from "mother Liu". Finally, the trademarks registered above were declared invalid

The sudden malicious rush to register storm has exhausted many we media creators, as well as the platform economy. In an interview with the media, the relevant person in charge of the operation of station B said that the platform has invested a lot in the human and material resources of the creators of our media, and similar malicious preemption has occurred, which has done great harm to the creators and the entire creative ecosystem

According to the rule of law daily, after a company in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province scrambled to register the word "self-defense" as a trademark, it filed a batch of complaints against hundreds of online sex products stores, threatening to "withdraw the lawsuit and give 5000", and the complainants have applied for the registration of more than 100 commodity description terms commonly used by foreign major brands and e-commerce sellers such as "Diesel". Fortunately, the State Intellectual Property Office believed that the company had maliciously registered trademarks, disrupted the normal order of trademark registration management, and declared the "self-defense" trademark invalid

But this kind of rush to register is not an isolated phenomenon. According to media reports, some people rush to register common words such as "hole" and "hula hoop" as trademarks, complaining that countless e-commerce sellers of "hole jeans" and "hula hoop" are trying to extort high licensing fees and withdrawal fees. "Malicious trademarks" are rampant and have formed a black industrial chain

Trademarks are used, not fried. The State Intellectual Property Bureau deployed to crack down on malicious preemption

"The current phenomenon of trademark registration and hoarding has run counter to the original meaning of trademarks." Relevant intellectual property experts told reporters that "trademark registration is for use, not for speculation" is the direction established by the new trademark law, "the value of trademarks lies in use, and a consensus should be formed in all sectors of society"

Intellectual property experts believe that the influx of a large number of controversial Trademarks into the market has also adversely affected the business order and even caused social problems. Xinhua Daily Telegraph, a Xinhua news agency, published a commentary saying that the trademark examination and approval department must properly control the "access" of trademarks, and the trademark examination methods and standards should be more unified to avoid randomness, subjectivization and fuzziness; The specific review process should also be more standardized, standard and transparent

The Red Net review article believes that when the rush to register blockbuster trademarks has become a market trend, businesses compete to attract a moment of enthusiasm with joking hot words, and regard obtaining traffic as their own business secret. It is a short-sighted behavior of eager for quick success and instant benefit, blindly following the trend, and also a pathological follow-up to the traffic heat, which should be corrected and corrected. The market supervision department should focus on supervising such events and check the qualification of trademark application enterprises, Maintain a reasonable and orderly market environment

According to the official website of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, on the morning of December 4, the Party committee of the Trademark Office held an expanded meeting of the theoretical learning center group, emphasizing that combining trademark work, focusing on the main responsibility and main business, concentrating on examination, further shortening the cycle of trademark examination, improving the quality of trademark examination, and severely cracking down on malicious trademark registration and hoarding; Focus on improving quality and efficiency, concentrate on reform, further strengthen top-level design, improve the trademark examination system, and improve the standardization, standardization, and rule of law of trademark work

On the afternoon of December 7, the Standing Committee of the Party committee of the Trademark Office held a meeting, which once again emphasized that the main responsibility and main business of trademark examination should be focused, the reform of trademark registration facilitation should be continuously deepened, the quality and efficiency of trademark examination should be improved, the malicious registration and hoarding of trademarks should be severely cracked down, and the reform of trademark precision should be promoted, so as to contribute to strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights and promoting the construction of a powerful intellectual property country

Surging news noted that in response to netizens' roast and suggestions about trademark registration, reselling and hoarding, on December 7, the State Intellectual Property Office responded successively in the "leadership message board" column of the people's network

In the "leaders' message board" column of people's network, some netizens reported that the problem of "professional rush registrants or malicious registration or reselling and hoarding" was getting worse and worse. Suggestions were made that the trademark office should start with the trademark transfer process and add relevant measures and regulations; Some netizens commented that trademark agencies rush to register trademarks for profit, hoping to "take measures to solve the problem of trademark rush registration"

"The State Intellectual Property Office has been paying close attention to and strengthening rectification." In response to the questions raised by netizens, the State Intellectual Property Office replied that on the one hand, it actively promoted the improvement of China's trademark laws and regulations; on the other hand, it included such issues in the "blue sky" special rectification action of the intellectual property agency industry, and focused on the rectification of trademark agents' malicious rush to register trademarks. In the next step, the State Intellectual Property Office will further strengthen the crackdown on trademark agents' malicious rush to register trademarks. At the same time, it will continue to strengthen publicity, enhance the awareness of enterprise trademark protection, and create a good intellectual property protection environment for enterprises

The State Intellectual Property Office said that it would conscientiously implement the newly revised trademark law and the provisions on standardizing trademark application and registration, formulate relevant examination and trial procedures, issue the operation guide for the examination of malicious trademark registration applications not for use, and further refine the specific application and identification factors of Article 4 of the trademark law, "malicious trademark registration applications not for use should be rejected", In the review stage, effectively crack down on malicious registration, hoarding of trademarks and other types of trademark malicious registration applications that are not for use