In the process of trademark infringement litigation, the concept of relevant public is usually introduced when judging whether trademarks are identical or similar. Article 8 of the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Trademark Civil Disputes explains that the relevant public mentioned in the Trademark Law refers to consumers related to a certain kind of goods or services identified by trademarks and other operators closely related to the marketing of the aforementioned goods or services.

so how to define the relevant public in practice?

In fact, there is no uniform and fixed definition standard for the relevant public, which should be analyzed separately according to individual cases. However, I think it should have the following characteristics: the relevant public is not a fictional concept, but an inevitable group in law, which usually refers to the corresponding case now? Related markets? A group formed by the temporary combination of most people, and they don't know each other within the group; The relevant public should have the most basic trademark knowledge and brand values of modern people, but they are not experts and brand hardcore in this field; The relevant public should have the basic knowledge, experience and ordinary attention when purchasing goods or services to adapt to their normal life; What is relevant to the public is a dynamic group.

in practice, we should adhere to the principle of unification of subjective and objective standards, base ourselves on the specific commodity or service field corresponding to the trademark involved, consider the influence of the nature, type and price of the commodity or service on its scope and attention, and define the scope of the relevant public objectively and fairly in combination with the above-mentioned characteristics. For common consumer goods or services such as mineral water, washing liquid, edible oil, cinemas, etc., because of their wide range of related public and high purchase frequency, the related public should be defined as ordinary consumers at this time, and their attention should be relatively small when purchasing, which may lead to confusion and misunderstanding of trademarks.

For goods or services such as gas stoves, household medicines, power distribution boards, beauty salons, etc., although they are also goods or services consumed by the public, the scope of relevant public is also relatively wide. However, due to the safety issues involved, the relevant public pays more attention to them than ordinary consumer goods at this time, thus the possibility of trademark confusion and misidentification is relatively reduced. For the goods or services in the professional fields such as large-scale mechanical equipment, central air conditioning, passenger cars, and large-scale software platform development, because of their strong professionalism, the scope of their relevant public is obviously small, limited to specific government departments, enterprises, institutions or companies, and at the same time, their purchasing decisions are not made by individuals, and the attention exerted during purchasing is also extraordinary, so the probability of trademark confusion and misidentification is low.

In Beijing Blu-ray Elevator Company v. (Korea) LG Power Generation Co., Ltd.? LG? In the trademark case, the court finally held that the goods involved in this case are elevators, which are not ordinary consumer goods, and the main body that can consume elevators should be units. The buyers sent by units that intend to purchase such special goods should be people who have more knowledge of elevator products and have considerable discrimination. In this case, these people who are relatively familiar with elevator products should constitute the so-called relevant public. They will pay more attention to the goods than buying daily necessities on behalf of the units, and will distinguish them more carefully, which will lead to them. For another example, although automobiles, large household appliances, professional education and training, and other goods or services are also common consumer goods or services at present, the relevant public in this field may be ordinary consumers, but they pay more attention when purchasing such goods than when purchasing goods or services consumed by the public.

the author believes that the definition of relevant public should be a dynamic process of change, and the relevant public corresponding to goods or services should change with the development of economy and society. For example, at the beginning of this century, products or services such as mobile phones, computers, professional photography, projection equipment, etc. should belong to the field of professional products or services, and their corresponding related public scope is relatively specific, so the possibility of confusion and misunderstanding is low when the relevant public chooses. However, with the development of economy and society in recent years, mobile phones, computers, professional photography and projection equipment have become common consumer goods. At this time, the relevant public of such goods or services are basically ordinary consumers, and the number of various brands has surged, which greatly increases the possibility of confusion and misunderstanding when the relevant public chooses.

the natural growth of relevant public is also a factor that can not be ignored in the process of defining relevant public. With the development and progress of society, affected by education, experience, practice, social communication and other factors, the relevant public's ability to distinguish trademarks is also changing dynamically, and their ability to resist confusion and identify will be gradually enhanced.

Therefore, in trademark infringement litigation, both judges and lawyers should organically combine factors such as case situation, economic and social development, and determine a reasonable relevant public scope in order to handle the case fairly.