Under what circumstances can a trademark administrative lawsuit be filed?

According to Article 11, Item 8 of the Administrative Litigation Law, citizens, legal persons or other organizations believe that administrative agencies have violated their personal rights and property rights? Administrative proceedings can be initiated. Any party concerned who is dissatisfied with any penalty involving property rights may file a lawsuit. As far as trademark administrative litigation cases are concerned, according to the Trademark Law and its detailed rules, if the party concerned is dissatisfied with the punishment imposed by the industrial and commercial administration for the following seven acts, he or she may file an administrative lawsuit.

1. Products using a trademark are crudely manufactured and passed off as inferior, thereby deceiving consumers;

2. Products that are stipulated by the state to use a registered trademark are not sold without a registered trademark. Sold on the market;

3. Unregistered trademarks are used as registered trademarks;

4. The trademarks used fall under the provisions of Article 8 of the Trademark Law, words and words that are not allowed to be used as trademarks. Graphic;

5. Infringement of the exclusive rights of registered trademarks, the industrial and commercial administration authorities shall order the infringement to cease and impose fines;

6. Destroy toxic, harmful and useless goods ;

7. Sealing or confiscating trademarks and logos.

How to resolve trademark infringement disputes

According to Article 39 of my country’s Trademark Law, if the exclusive right to use a registered trademark is infringed, the infringed party may file a complaint with the industrial and commercial administration department at or above the county level. To request handling, you can also file a lawsuit directly with the People's Court. It can be seen that to resolve trademark infringement disputes, there are administrative channels to be handled by the industrial and commercial administration departments, and judicial channels to file lawsuits in the People's Court.

1. Administrative solution

(1) The administrative jurisdiction of trademark infringement cases can be either the industrial and commercial administration department where the infringer is located, or the industrial and commercial administration department where the infringement occurred. management department.

(2) After receiving trademark infringement cases, the industrial and commercial administration departments at or above the county level shall stop the infringement through investigation and evidence collection and on the premise of determining the facts, and make decisions based on the infringer’s illegal facts and the severity of the circumstances. Administrative penalties. Specific punishment measures include: 1. Order to stop sales immediately; 2. Invite and destroy the infringing trademark logo; 3. Eliminate the infringing trademark on the current trademark; 4. Invite molds, printing plates or other crime tools that are directly used for trademark infringement. ; 5. Order and supervise the destruction of items; 6. Depending on the circumstances, a fine of less than 50% of the illegal business volume or less than five times of the profits obtained from the infringement shall be imposed, and the infringer may be ordered to compensate the infringed party for the losses.

(3) If the commercial administrative agency believes that the exclusive right to use a registered trademark has been infringed, it may exercise the following powers when investigating and collecting evidence: 1. Question the relevant parties; 2. Inspect items related to the infringing activities, and if necessary, It can be ordered to be sealed for reading; 3. Investigate behaviors related to infringement activities; 4. Review and copy contracts, account books and other business materials related to infringement activities. Choosing the industrial and commercial administrative department to handle trademark infringement cases has its own unique advantages: the personnel handling the case are familiar with the business, the handling procedures are simple, and the case is concluded quickly, thus saving time and effort. However, its obvious shortcoming is that the administrative decision has no final effect. If the parties are dissatisfied with the handling of the industrial and commercial administrative organs, they can still file a lawsuit in the People's Court.

2. Litigation resolution methods

(1) Jurisdiction. Trademark infringement cases may be under the jurisdiction of the People's Court of the place where the infringement occurred or where the infringer is located. In this regard, the infringed party can freely choose the place where the infringement occurred or the people's court where the infringer is located to file a lawsuit. At the same time, due to the complexity of trademark infringement cases, the Supreme People's Court currently designates the Intermediate People's Court to have jurisdiction.

(2) The People’s Court generally adopts civil sanctions in handling trademark infringement cases. Based on the infringed party's right to claim for prohibition, claim for loss compensation, claim for return of undue benefits, and claim for restoration of reputation, the people's court may adopt the following methods individually or in combination: 1. Order the infringer to immediately stop the infringement.

You can destroy the items that constitute the infringement, dismantle the equipment used in the infringement, and invite tools, templates, etc. that are directly used for the infringement; 2. Eliminate the impact and restore the credibility of the infringed party, such as ordering the infringed party to publish in newspapers and magazines Publish an apology statement, etc., in order to restore the business reputation of the infringed party; 3. Compensate the losses of the infringed party. The amount of compensation is calculated based on the profits gained by the infringer from the infringement during the infringement period or the infringed party's losses due to the infringement during the infringement period. Losses suffered due to infringement. In addition, the infringer shall also compensate the infringer for the expenses incurred by the infringed party for investigation, evidence collection, and hiring of litigation or non-litigation agents; 4. In addition to the above main methods, the people's court may also adopt admonitions, ordering repentance, Measures such as confiscation of illegal gains, fines or detention.

(3) Civil litigation procedures are applicable to litigation settlement of trademark infringement cases.

Prosecution. The person whose trademark has been infringed must file a lawsuit with the People's Court in accordance with the law before launching a lawsuit. When suing a trademark infringer, you must pay attention to:

Submit a lawsuit to the People's Court, and submit copies according to the number of defendants; the lawsuit must have a clear defendant, that is, the trademark infringer, and have specific prosecution requirements, such as a request to stop Infringement, and request a certain amount of compensation, with facts and reasons, that is, when filing a lawsuit, relevant supporting documents of the registered trademark and evidence materials proving the infringement of the infringement should be attached; the lawsuit must fall within the scope of the People's Court and the People's Court that is the subject of the lawsuit Management, and within the scope of the law, choose the most favorable court to sue; the lawsuit must be filed within the statute of limitations stipulated by law, that is, 2 years from the date the trademark owner knew or should have known that the exclusive right of the trademark had been infringed by others. File a lawsuit within. In addition, trademark infringement cases are relatively complex, and the parties may entrust 1 to 2 agents to participate in the litigation. Choosing someone from a trademark agency or a lawyer who is proficient in trademark law as your litigation agent is very important to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties.

Trial. The people's court shall file a case and accept a lawsuit that meets the legal requirements after review. When hearing a trademark infringement case, it must be conducted in accordance with legal procedures. Through the trial of trademark infringement cases, the People's Court ascertains the facts of the case, distinguishes right from wrong, and clarifies responsibilities. On this basis, it makes a judgment on the focus of the dispute between the two parties, namely whether it constitutes infringement, whether compensation should be paid, and the amount of compensation.

Property preservation. Property preservation is a very important issue in trademark infringement litigation. Taking preservation measures correctly and in accordance with the law is of great significance to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the infringed party. Therefore, property preservation is often used in trademark infringement lawsuits. Property preservation means that in order to promptly and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of closely related persons or parties, the People's Court shall, before litigation or making a judgment, upon the application of closely related persons or parties, or on its own initiative and in accordance with its authority, take measures to restrict the disposal of relevant property or to Mandatory measures for transfer. Property preservation includes litigation property preservation and pre-litigation property preservation, which are applicable to different legal situations.

The applicable conditions for the preservation of litigation property are: 1. The case has been accepted by the court, but a judgment has not yet been made; 2. The case has specific content of payment, which may be used due to the behavior of one of the parties or other reasons. If the judgment cannot be enforced or is difficult to enforce in the future, for example, the infringer transfers, conceals, destroys or sells the relevant items without authorization; 3. The applicant provides a guarantee (if the people's court makes a property preservation ruling ex officio, the party does not need to provide a guarantee).

The applicable conditions for pre-litigation property preservation are: 1. During the pre-litigation period, there is an emergency situation, and failure to take immediate preservation measures will cause irreparable losses to the applicant’s interests; 2. The applicant must If a person files an application, the people's court cannot take the initiative to make a preservation ruling ex officio; 3. The applicant must provide a guarantee; 4. The applicant must file a lawsuit within 15 days after the court takes preservation measures, otherwise the court will terminate the pre-litigation property preservation in accordance with the law.

There are certain scope restrictions for applicants to apply for property preservation. The scope of the request must be property directly related to the financial affairs of the case or the substantive rights requested by the applicant to be protected, and cannot involve the personal rights of the respondent or the property and personal rights of persons other than the respondent.

In trademark infringement cases, the scope of application for preservation includes the infringer’s funds, the manufacturing, storage, and transportation of the infringing products, machinery, equipment, tools, and the infringing products themselves. Property preservation can take the form of sealing, detaining, freezing, etc.

The party concerned shall apply for property preservation in strict accordance with the law. If an application error causes losses to the respondent, the applicant shall be responsible for compensation.

Execute. Enforcement is the final stage of the litigation process and is also an important way for the rights and interests of the parties who win the lawsuit to be realized. According to the provisions of the Trademark Law, if a party is dissatisfied with the decision of the industrial and commercial administrative department to impose a fine, he may file a lawsuit with the People's Court within fifteen days of receiving the notice; if he deceives and fails to prosecute and perform, the relevant industrial and commercial administrative department shall apply to the People's Court for deception. Court enforced. If the people's court finds that there is indeed an error in the decision, it will not execute the decision with the approval of the president and notify the administrative agency; if there is no error, it will enforce the decision and the party concerned will pay a fine. If the parties do not voluntarily pay the fine, the people's court may issue a notice, forcibly transfer the fine from the bank, or adopt enforcement measures such as seizure and auction. Compensation fees for trademark infringement are also enforceable.

The above is the situation of filing trademark administrative litigation provided by the editor. I hope it can be helpful to everyone.

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