Supreme Court Interpretations on Handling Disputes Between Registered Trademarks, Enterprise Name and Prior Civil Rights
In recent years, the number of cases concerning conflict between registered trademarks, enterprise names and the prior civil rights has been increasing sharply in China. This has created widespread concern and is fast becoming a hot and difficult issue in the trials of intellectual property rights.
Date:
April 2008
Keywords (click to search): [trademark] [intellectual property rights] [Infringement] [civil rights]
By Mike J. Chen, Kangxin Partners*
On February 18 2008, the Supreme People’s Court issued Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Trial of Civil Disputes Involving Conflicts Between Prior Rights and Registered Trademarks of Enterprise Names (the Provisions). According to experts, the Regulations enacted on March 1 2008 will effectively solve the conflicts between the different kinds of IP rights that exist in current judicial practice.
Background of the Regulations
Intellectual property rights are based on different intellectual property laws and regulations, and various types of intellectual property rights are created by different methods. For example, the copyright is automatically generated when the work is completed; According to the PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the rights on unique commodity names, packaging and decoration of well-known commodities are based on their business use. However, trademark rights, patent rights and enterprise name rights shall be granted after registration with the relevant administrative authorities in accordance with the law. Under Chinese laws, trademark rights, patent rights and copyrights are respectively granted and managed by the trademark bureau, patent bureau and copyright bureau. Hence, when these rights are exercised by different holders, certain types of conflicts might appear.
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