According to incomplete statistics, cases suspected of malicious registration account for more than 30% of other trademark administrative cases, except for dismissal and revocation of review cases, which shows that the phenomenon of malicious registration of trademarks is serious. Song Xiaoming, president of the Supreme People's Court Intellectual Property Court, once pointed out: "Cybersquatters make profits by transferring domain names at high prices, filing trademark infringement lawsuits for high compensation, and taking advantage of cybersquatters to hitchhike, which greatly disrupts the order of trademark application and use, causing unnecessary costs and obstacles to honest operators."
In practice, the malicious registration of trademarks mainly includes the following situations:
1, the agent, representative or other specific related parties are squatting.
In the case of malicious registration of trademarks, many malicious cybersquatters have had business relations with prior obligees, such as dealers, agents, importers, franchisees, trademark licensees and so on. Because it has a business cooperation relationship with the prior obligee, it is fully aware of the market value and potential profit of a trademark, so it often maliciously registers the partner's trademark and related logo after the cooperation ends or even during the cooperation process, in order to obtain improper profits through high-priced sales or independent operation in the future.
2. Competitors in the same industry are scrambling to register.
Malicious registration from competitors in the same industry also accounts for an important proportion of malicious trademark registration. In practice, many malicious trademark registrants apply for registration of trademarks that have been used by competitors in the same industry but have not been registered on the same or similar or even dissimilar goods/services, and after the trademark is approved for registration, they quickly take "rights protection" measures such as industrial and commercial investigation or trademark infringement litigation to prevent the previous users from continuing to use their trademarks, so as to curb competitors and interfere with their normal business activities.
3. Speculative domain name cybersquatting
In practice, some malicious registrations are speculative. The registrant of this kind of trademark registers the trademark not for practical use, but for hoarding the trademark and seeking benefits. The object of registration is either a prior trademark with a certain popularity, especially a prior trademark that is well-known abroad but has not yet entered China, or a public resource such as common names and business terms, or a celebrity name.
Trademark Malicious Registered Trademark Application Quantity Brand Protection Consciousness Malicious Registered Trademark Infringement Snatching Trademark Agency Competitor Snatching Speculative Snatching