Case 14: Hisense and Donglin trademarks were registered in turmoil

In June 2004, Xiamen Donglin Electronics Company and Hisense Company successively revealed to the outside world that "Hisense" and "Hisense" The "firefly" trademark was registered in Germany by Siemens' subsidiaries Dr. Siemens and Osram. Although China's Ministry of Commerce and the European Union intervened in the matter, Siemens offered Hisense a high transfer price of 40 million euros and refused to negotiate with Donglin Group. Accept.

Hisense stated that on January 5, 1999, the Hisense trademark "Hisense" was officially recognized as a well-known trademark by the State Trademark Office. However, on the sixth day after that, Bosch-Siemens, a subsidiary of Siemens, Germany has registered the trademark "HiSense". The only difference between this trademark and Hisense's "Hisense" trademark is the uppercase and lowercase letter "S" in the middle. Since 2001, Hisense and Siemens have been involved in a five-year trademark dispute. In February this year, Hisense and Donglin jointly went to Germany to resolve the dispute through legal means. In March, Siemens suddenly reconciled with Hisense and transferred the "Hisense" trademark to Hisense. Under the mediation of the Ministry of Commerce of China and the European Union, the dispute over the "firefly" trademark between Donglin and Siemens also took a turn for the better and reached a settlement: On a global scale, each party will obtain one category of trademark rights for lighting and electronic components. This controversial trademark squatting case has finally come to an end.

Among the energy-saving lamps exported by Donglin Company in 2003, half of the products were labeled with the "Firefly" trademark. If Osram controls the "Firefly" trademark rights in 18 European countries, it will mean that Donglin Company's energy saving Lamps cannot enter these markets. If the trademark is preemptively registered, Donglin will suffer a disastrous blow. Similarly, for Hisense, a large multinational company, European trademark rights are equally important. Although Hisense and Donglin eventually regained their trademark rights in Europe, it is not difficult to see that Chinese companies do not have enough awareness of three-dimensional trademarks. If an enterprise is based on long-term development, its trademark strategy should come first and "enclose the territory" in advance, so that it can take the initiative when entering overseas markets.

Furthermore, a powerful company like Hisense should have obtained protection on a certain scale around the world through international registration. In the International Bureau of WIPO, it only costs US$50 to obtain a country’s trademark protection through territorial extension. I don’t know. In place, the lack of awareness leads to such a situation. As everyone knows, when you are peering at other people's markets, others have already focused on the foundation of your expansion-trademark.

(2) Insufficient understanding of the value of one’s famous trademark, selling at a low price or disposing of it easily, causing irreparable losses.

It is difficult for a country to become an economic power without a few internationally renowned trademarks and international famous brands. It is Marlboro, Coca-Cola, IBM, Panasonic, Hitachi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nestle, Pierre. International famous brand products such as Cardin and Remy Martin have pushed countries such as the United States, Japan, France, and Germany to the throne of economic power. Over the past decade of reform and opening up, China's economy has developed rapidly and its achievements have attracted worldwide attention. However, it is very regrettable that not only have we failed to approach international brands, but even our own brands, famous trademarks and brand-name products have been lost and disappeared in large numbers.

When Chinese companies cooperate with foreign companies, they do not pay enough attention to their own famous trademarks and have a weak awareness of protection. As a result, the company's original famous trademarks are maliciously acquired by foreign parties in foreign-related economic activities. Or deliberately downplay it and withdraw from the market. The famous brands that companies have worked hard to create for decades have been completely replaced by foreign brands under the deliberate arrangement of foreign parties, and they have lost market interests for this reason. A more pressing issue is that once the corresponding trademark license agreement for a foreign brand expires, China will face an extremely embarrassing situation - if it continues to use it, it will face high licensing fees and will always be controlled by others, and if it does not use it, it will have to invest huge amounts again. Capital is used to build a brand but it may not be successful, thus putting it at a disadvantage in competition with foreign brands.

In actual operation, the methods that the foreign party may adopt are: first, both parties’ trademarks are in use, but the main products and new products use the foreign party’s trademark, and the old products use the original Chinese brand, and the foreign party Through the upgrading of products, the Chinese side will gradually squeeze out the original Chinese famous brands from the market, thereby achieving the goal of completely controlling China's domestic market in terms of trademark rights. For example, in the beverage industry, among the so-called "eight famous brands", except for "Jianlibao" which did not enter into a joint venture and "Zhengguanghe" which failed to form a joint venture, the other six have joint ventures with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. The method of joint venture is that the foreign party controls the brand, and the brand is owned by two companies.

In the laundry detergent industry, Shanghai's "White Cat", Guangdong's "Gaofuli" and "Zhongyi" were all controlled by foreign parties after joint ventures. They take advantage of the production capacity and sales channels of Chinese famous brand manufacturers to promote their high-priced "Bilang" and "Tide" products, pushing our famous brands into the shadows. After the Guangzhou Soap Factory's "Jiehua" brand soap entered into a joint venture with the United States, it was quickly replaced by "Head and Shoulders" and "Pantene". The second is to simply invest in leasing, converting capital into shares or purchasing, and then put them on the shelf. After a few years, people have completely forgotten these traditional famous brands. When China wakes up from its dream and redeems it at a high price, it will be too late. "Maximum" toothpaste, "Jinghua" tea, etc. have all gone through this road of no return.

In foreign-related economic activities, newly developed technologies, developed technologies, newly used trademarks, and newly produced works are certainly constantly occurring. How to clarify this through intellectual property protection is a major issue related to the survival and development of enterprises for Chinese manufacturers involved in foreign-related economic activities, and cannot be ignored at all. As a Chinese manufacturer, we should actively strive to determine the ownership of newly generated intellectual property rights as our own, and adopt various means to effectively protect them. If you can use patent method protection, you should promptly apply for a patent from the State Intellectual Property Office; for technical information and business information that are not suitable for patent protection, use the method of trade secret protection; newly created brands should promptly apply for trademarks in their own names, etc. wait.