Legal subjectivity:

The use of trademarks includes the following forms: integrated into goods, used on the outer packaging of goods, used on containers for holding goods, used on transaction documents, used in Used in product advertising, exhibitions, other commercial activities, etc. Legal objectivity:

According to China’s Trademark Law, if a registered trademark has been stopped for three consecutive years, the Trademark Office will revoke the registered trademark based on the evidence provided by the party concerned. So, how can the use of a trademark be regarded as a correct and effective use of a registered trademark? What evidence is the evidence of effective use of a trademark? Especially the large number of e-commerces currently appearing has caused great changes in the use of trademarks. How to define such evidence? ?Experts here to talk about some of their own views. 1. Relevant provisions in the "Trademark Law" China's "Trademark Law" clearly defines the use of trademarks. Paragraph 2 of Article 29 of the "Details for the Implementation of the Trademark Law" stipulates: "The use of trademarks referred to in the preceding paragraph includes the use of trademarks on commodities, commodity packaging or containers, and commodity transaction documents, or the use of trademarks for advertising, Exhibitions and other business activities." 2. Several common current evidences of trademark use: 1. Large-scale advertising of a trademark is direct and powerful evidence of the use of the trademark, such as through newspapers, magazines, television, radio, etc. Advertising media for commercial promotion. However, *** announcements (including the "Trademark Announcement") are not included in this list. ***The announcement is for publicity purposes only and is not commercial. For example, if an enterprise provides evidence that a local government announced in a local newspaper that its trademark was awarded an honorary title by the local government, such evidence is a public announcement and is not considered evidence of use of the trademark. When a trademark is involved in a news report in the news media, since it is published in the nature of news, it does not have a commercial nature. Also, because it is not an "advertisement", it is not regarded as evidence of use. 2. If you license others to use a trademark, the licensee’s use shall be deemed as the use of the trademark, but the registrant shall provide the above-mentioned proof of use and trademark use license contract to the Trademark Office. Paragraph 2 of Article 19 of the trips agreement clearly stipulates that "use by others under the control of the trademark registrant" (mainly refers to the use by the licensee) is consistent with "the use required to maintain registration." 3. Attaching a trademark to goods or their packaging or wrapping in the country solely for the purpose of export will also be regarded as the use of the trademark in the country. 3. Common disputes in practice l. Renewal of registered trademarks, changes in the name of the registrant, and changes in the address of the registrant. The renewal, name change, and address change of a trademark only indicate the registration status of the trademark, not the use of the trademark, and cannot be regarded as evidence of actual use of the trademark. 2. The registered trademark has changed during use. There are two situations here. If the actual use of the trademark provided by the registrant as evidence is obviously inconsistent with the approved registered trademark (the subject of the trademark has changed), such evidence cannot be regarded as evidence of use of the trademark; if the trademark provided has only partially changed, but the trademark has not changed The salient feature of registration is that the registered trademark has not undergone substantial changes. Although the trademark used is not exactly the same as the original registered trademark, it can still be regarded as used. In order to define what constitutes a substantial change, we can draw lessons from the Japanese Trademark Law. The "Japanese Trademark Law" stipulates that the use of a registered trademark with the following changes shall be deemed to be the use of the same trademark. (1) When using a registered trademark, change the text font in the trademark image. For example, change printed fonts to written fonts, regular scripts to cursive scripts and running scripts, traditional Chinese characters to simplified Chinese characters, and uppercase letters to lowercase letters. (2) As long as the call and meaning are uniquely corresponding, Japanese hiragana, katakana, English and kanji can be used with each other, and it is not illegal to use them. (3) The non-main part of the registered trademark graphic has slight changes. (4) Registered trademarks consisting of two characters with the same meaning can be used separately. Kanji written horizontally or hiragana or katakana can be written vertically. 3. Use in Hong Kong, Macao Special Administrative Region, and Taiwan. Hong Kong and Macau have returned to the motherland and become special administrative regions, and Taiwan is an integral part of the Republic of China. However, due to historical reasons, these three regions have different trademark legal systems from mainland China. According to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions maintain their original legal systems. Therefore, use in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions cannot be used as evidence of effective use to maintain a trademark registered in mainland China. Since Taiwan has not yet returned to China, it remains to be discussed how Taiwan's legal system will be integrated with that of the mainland.

4. Use the trademark in newspapers, periodicals, statistical reports, ingredient lists, etc. issued within the company. Experts believe that a trademark must be used for the purpose of commercial transactions to directly or indirectly promote goods or services to consumers to be effectively used. This is because trademarks are products of the market economy. Trademarks cannot exist independently of market competition, and market competition cannot be separated from trademarks. The two are cause and effect for each other. Enterprises use trademarks in advertising, trade transaction documents, etc., all for the purpose of commercial transactions, to directly or indirectly promote goods or services to consumers. The use of trademarks by enterprises in their internal financial statements, statistical data, etc. is not for the purpose of commercial transactions and has no relationship with consumers. This method cannot be regarded as the use of trademarks. 5. When a trademark registrant uses multiple registered trademarks on a single product at the same time, each registered trademark should be separated and independent, and should not be overlapped to create new visual effects, otherwise it will not be regarded as use. For a combination trademark, the separate use of part of the combination trademark cannot be regarded as use of the combination trademark. 6. The use of trademarks on the Internet has brought new problems to the legal protection of trademarks. Since it is difficult to determine the temporal and regional nature of online trademark use, it remains to be discussed whether online trademark use can be regarded as use of a trademark. 4. Regarding legitimate reasons for non-use, my country’s Trademark Law does not clearly stipulate legitimate reasons for non-use of registered trademarks, which is not conducive to actual operation. Non-use due to economic or legal reasons beyond the control of the trademark owner can be used as a legitimate reason for non-use, such as: the country does not allow the import of certain goods for three years or other illegal activities that make a certain If a registered trademark cannot be used for a certain period of time, it shall be regarded as not being used for "justifiable reasons". The non-use of the applied trademark due to undetermined rights during the period of opposition and opposition review can also be regarded as a legitimate reason for non-use of the trademark. In these cases, it is not the trademark registrant who does not use it, but the special behavior of the attacker that prevents the registrant from using it normally. These legitimate reasons for non-use are factors beyond the control of the trademark owner. In this case, the parties concerned should be exempted from liability. This is also the basic principle of my country's civil law.