Circumstances under which a trademark may be declared invalid

Under what circumstances will a trademark be declared invalid? Are there any precautions? The editor has compiled a list of circumstances under which a trademark may be declared invalid. Welcome to read, for reference only!< /p>

Procedures for applying for invalidation of trademark rights

Corresponding to different invalidation situations of trademark rights, the procedures for invalidating trademark rights are also different.

(1) There are two procedures for invalidating trademark rights when a registered trademark is obviously defective:

1. The Trademark Office can proactively cancel the registered trademark ex officio;

< p>2. Other units or individuals may request the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to rule on revoking the registered trademark.

(2) For improperly registered trademarks, the trademark owner or interested party may request the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to revoke the registered trademark within five years from the date of trademark registration. For cases registered in bad faith, the owner of a well-known trademark is not subject to the five-year time limit.

(3) For disputes over registered trademarks, the owner of the previously registered trademark may apply to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board for a ruling to cancel the later-registered trademark within five years from the date of approval of registration of the disputed trademark.

For a trademark that has been opposed and adjudicated before registration is approved, no application can be made to revoke the registered trademark based on the same facts and reasons.

After the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board makes a ruling to maintain or cancel a registered trademark, it shall notify the relevant parties in writing. If the party concerned is dissatisfied with the ruling of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board, it may file a lawsuit with the People's Court within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice. The people's court shall notify the other party in the trademark adjudication procedure to participate in the litigation as a third party.

What are the circumstances under which trademark rights are invalid?

(1) The registered trademark is obviously defective

1. Violation of the prohibitive provisions of the Trademark Law. That is, in violation of Article 10 of the Trademark Law, the registered trademark uses a sign that is prohibited from being used as a trademark by law; in violation of Article 11 of the Trademark Law, the registered trademark uses a sign that is prohibited from being used as a registered trademark by law; in violation of the Trademark Law Article 12 of the Law, a registered three-dimensional trademark is a mark that does not have distinctive features and cannot be registered.

2. Obtain registration by deceptive means. This means that when a trademark registrant applies for trademark registration, he fabricates, conceals facts, or forges application documents and other relevant supporting documents to obtain registration, such as forging business licenses, forging approval documents from drug or tobacco management departments, forging certificates of origin, etc. .

(2) Obtaining registration by unfair means

The trademark owner obtains registration by unfair means such as infringing on other people's prior rights, malicious preemptive registration, infringing on other people's business reputation, etc. The situation is more complicated.

1. Infringe upon the prior rights of others. This means that the trademark applied for registration conflicts with the legal rights previously obtained by others. In fact, the trademark infringes upon the prior rights of others, such as copyright, design patent rights, portrait rights, name rights, trade name rights and other civil rights. The reason why this type of trademark right is invalid is that the applicant applies for registration of the rights enjoyed by others as his own trademark. This is an infringement and cannot be tolerated by the law.

2. Malicious registration. This means that the trademark owner violates the principle of good faith when applying for registration and maliciously applies for registration of other people's influential trademarks and well-known trademarks. Specific situations of malicious registration include:

(1) Preemptively registering a trademark that has been used by others and has certain influence;

(2) Applying for registration of a trademark for the same or similar goods is a copy It is a copy, imitation or translation of someone else’s well-known trademark that has not been registered in China, which is likely to cause confusion;

(3) The trademark applied for registration for different or dissimilar goods is a copy, imitation or translation of someone else’s well-known trademark that has not been registered in China: A well-known trademark registered in China misleads the public, resulting in possible legal harm to the interests of the registrant of the well-known trademark;

(4) Without authorization, an agent or representative uses the trademark in his or her own name to The principal or representative's trademark is registered;

(5) The trademark contains a geographical indication of a product, but the product does not originate from the area indicated by the trademark, and the trademark owner It was a malicious application for registration and approval.

(3) Registered trademark dispute

Registered trademark dispute means that the earlier registrant believes that the later registered trademark is the same or similar to the trademark registered on the same or similar goods or services. Disputes arising from the same or similar nature.

According to the first-to-protect principle, the owner of a trademark registered earlier has the right to request the cancellation of a later-registered trademark.

Legal Consequences of Invalid Trademark Rights

Once a registered trademark is declared invalid and revoked, the trademark right is deemed to have ceased to exist from the beginning. Decisions or rulings on the cancellation of registered trademarks, judgments and rulings on trademark infringement cases made and executed by the People's Court before cancellation, decisions on handling trademark infringement cases made and executed by the industrial and commercial administration departments, and trademark transfers that have been executed or use license contract, does not have retroactive effect; however, compensation shall be provided for losses caused to others due to the bad faith of the trademark registrant.