In the 1980s, I entered the Qinshui Industrial and Commercial Office of Lianhua County Industrial and Commercial Bureau, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province. The task assigned to me by the office was to engage in trademark supervision. At that time, in the entire township, except for a few state-owned enterprises that had registered trademarks, no private enterprise had established this awareness. Throughout the 1980s, there was not a single trademark violation case in the area under my jurisdiction.
In the 1990s, the private economy in my area developed rapidly, the market became active, and people's trademark and brand awareness also increased. At that time, most manufacturing enterprises had the desire to apply for registered trademarks, but creating a brand was not easy! As a result, some private owners came up with the idea of ??taking shortcuts. For a time, OEM or even "similar to famous brands" phenomena appeared in large numbers. Therefore, from this stage onwards, the number of trademark violation cases I handled gradually increased.
Later, I was transferred to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Lianhua County and worked successively in law enforcement and case handling and legal supervision positions. I have been involved in trademark supervision for 30 years. Although the economic development of Lianhua County is not as high as that of big cities, trademark infringement cases still occur from time to time and are of various types. After a brief summary, I classified them into several types.
The first is a case where the transferee continues to use the trademark without authorization after the expiration of the trademark license agreement. The Qinting trademark registered by Lianhua County Qinting Cement Co., Ltd. is well-known in the local cement industry, and a small cement factory signed a trademark license agreement with it. Later, the license agreement expired, but the small cement factory continued to use the Qinting trademark, which constituted trademark infringement.
The second is cases involving similar use of well-known trademarks. A few years ago, some consumers reported that a batch of Xizhilang jelly without manufacturer label appeared on the market, which was suspected to be a counterfeit product. After receiving the report, we followed the lead and traced it to a jelly factory in the county. After entering the workshop of the jelly factory, we found that it was in a semi-stop production state and the environment was dark and dirty. In the warehouse of the factory, we also found some tape used for jelly packaging, with the words "Xizhilang" printed on it. Facing the industrial and commercial law enforcement officers, the boss of the jelly factory claimed that his behavior did not constitute an illegal act. He said: "Look again, I am Kisaburo?!" Hearing what the boss said, we took a closer look and found that it was indeed Kisaburo. ?, but the writing of the character ? Therefore, we handled the case accordingly.
The third is a case of intentionally using another person’s trademark as one’s own corporate name. Not long ago, our bureau seized a batch of electric vehicles produced by Phoenix Xinye Company. The company's registered trademark is Xinye, but the word "Phoenix" is prominently used on its products, making it easy for people to associate its products with the Phoenix brand. Confused with electric cars.
The fourth is a case where the trademark applied for registration is intentionally close to a well-known trademark, causing people to mistake it for a well-known brand. Conch plastic steel materials are famous, so some people applied to register the Haijiao trademark; as the Sun God trademark became famous, some people registered the Hercules trademark. In fact, playing this kind of game that has something to do with well-known trademarks is like dancing on the tip of a knife. If you are not careful, you will hurt yourself.
Therefore, as an experienced industrialist and businessman who has been engaged in trademark supervision for many years, I would like to tell everyone that when you register a trademark, you should not take the credit of others, and you should go your own way when creating a brand.