A trademark dispute surrounding the word' Twitter' that lasted for nearly four years is still going on.
The two sides of the dispute are Twitter, an American social networking platform, and a trading company in China whose main business is to promote local products.
Liu Chen, the person in charge of Nantong Baitai Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as' Nantong Baitai', the company was named Nantong * * * Win World Trading Co., Ltd. when applying for trademark registration), told the legal reporter that in December 29, he applied to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (hereinafter referred to as' Trademark Office') with the word' Twitter' as the trademark in the name of the company, and wanted to use it as an e-commerce platform to promote local products.
however, after a year-long review, in March 211, the application was rejected by Twitter. The Trademark Office decided not to register the disputed trademark on the grounds that the trademark applied by Liu Chen and the' Twitter' trademark registered by Twitter company constituted similar trademarks in similar services.
since then, Liu Chen's plan to establish an e-commerce platform to promote local products has been forced to run aground, and the trademark game between the two sides around the word' Twitter' has also begun.
Twitter filed an objection before applying for registration of' Twitter'
On December 22nd, 212, Liu Chen filed an application for trademark objection review with the Trademark Office. A year later, the result of Liu Chen's arrival was still that the objected trademark (referring to the trademark applied by Liu Chen) would not be approved for registration.
' Can Twitter really not be used as a trademark to sell local products?' Liu Chen told the rule of law reporter that he was full of doubts when he received the reexamination ruling from the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board).' I accepted the lawyer's advice before, and because I want to establish an e-commerce platform for selling local products, I applied to register the' Twitter' trademark in the 38th category of trademarks' information transmission'; Telephone communication' and other service fields.'
Liu Chen said that around 29, he noticed that the market demand for local products was increasing, but there was no convenient supply channel and logistics platform in this field. He thought that the time was ripe to establish an e-commerce platform for local products. During that time, Liu Chen and his team chose the word' Twitter' as the name of the platform. Twitter is to promote local products and is easy for farmers to understand.'
' At that time, I had no idea that there was a company called ‘Twitter' abroad.' Liu Chen said,' Besides, the business I do has nothing to do with its business.'
On February 8th, the rule of law reporter logged on the website of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. According to the trademark inquiry data, Twitter applied for registration of the' Twitter' trademark in the 38th category of' e-mail and electronic communication services' in China in 27, and the' Twitter' trademark was in the same category as the trademark applied for registration by Liu Chen.
' The opportunity of e-commerce is thus missed.' Liu Chen told the rule of law reporter that he had sued the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in Beijing Intellectual Property Court because he refused to accept the reexamination ruling made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board, and listed Twitter as a third person, demanding that the reexamination ruling made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board be revoked and that word mark should make a new ruling.
On February 6th, the rule of law reporter called the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the Administration for Industry and Commerce for information, but the phone was not connected.
According to the information from the website of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Twitter applied to the Trademark Office for registration of the trademark with the word Twitter on September 16th, 214, but the current business status shows that it is not in the process of trademark registration application, and it is also registered in the field of "e-mail and electronic communication services" in the 38th category of China Trademark Classification.
Can the protection of registered English trademarks be extended to Chinese translation
Xie Huisheng, an attorney of Liu Chen and a lawyer of Beijing Strategy Law Firm, said that one of the focuses of the dispute about' Twitter' trademark is whether the protection of English trademarks of foreign companies registered in China should be extended to all Chinese translations of their English counterparts.
' The protection limit of Chinese translation of foreign trademarks should be that the foreign trademarks should correspond to a specific translation name. According to the spirit of China's trademark law and related judicial interpretations, the protection of translated names of foreign trademarks should be based on the establishment of a corresponding relationship between the translated names and the trademarks among the relevant public.' Liu Ying, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told the rule of law reporter.
So, in the trademark dispute between Nantong Baitai and Twitter, does' Twitter' correspond to the registered trademark of Twitter?
On February 6th, the rule of law reporter tried to contact Liu Yuanyue, an attorney entrusted by Twitter to raise objections against Liu Chen's application for registered trademark, and his assistant said that he could not be interviewed recently because of his business trip.
In the Trademark Objection Application provided by Twitter to the Trademark Office provided by Xie Huisheng, the rule of law reporter saw the reasons why Twitter raised objections.
Twitter believes that' Twitter' is the Chinese counterpart of its trademark. Before Liu Chen applied for registration (that is, on December 11th, 29), it had enjoyed high popularity and great influence in China, and Twitter and Twitter have formed a corresponding relationship after extensive use. To this end, Twitter Company mentioned the information about' Twitter' reported by relevant media at home and abroad as evidence in the Trademark Objection Application to confirm the corresponding relationship between them.
However, Xie Huisheng expressed different views to the rule of law reporters.
' From the call point of view, although there is some similarity between the disputed trademark and the cited trademark, there is no corresponding relationship. Before the filing date of the disputed trademark, the China media transliterated the cited trademark as "Tuyite", "Twitter" and so on, while Twitter registered the trademark "Twitter" on October 26, 27, and until January 13, 214, it always used "Twigt" as the Chinese transliteration of the company. It can be seen that Twitter itself does not recognize' Twitter' as the transliteration form of' Twitter'. " Xie Huisheng said.
Xie Huisheng thinks that the ruling made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board after Liu Chen's reexamination thinks that Twitter, as a Chinese translation of English Twitter, has been known to the relevant public in China and has formed a corresponding relationship, which has expanded the scope of protection of the trademark Twitter.
Liu Ying told the rule of law reporter that whether there is a corresponding relationship depends on the evidence support between the two parties and the final court's determination, so it is not easy to jump to conclusions. The translation of foreign languages, even if it is an authoritative dictionary, often has more than one meaning, which leads to many possibilities for the free translation of foreign trademarks; As for pronunciation, there are many homophones in Chinese characters, so there are many possibilities for transliteration in foreign languages. Therefore, if the translation of foreign names is not required, the scope of the trademark prohibition right of foreign trademark owners will be infinitely expanded, and the language resources that should belong to the public domain will be monopolized in essence, thus gaining obviously unfair's competitive advantage. "
Are Twitter and Twitter approximate trademarks of similar services
Whether the Twitter trademark that Liu Chen applied for registration and the Twitter trademark previously registered by Twitter belong to the similar trademarks of the same or similar services is also the focus of dispute about the Twitter trademark of Nantong Baitai and Twitter Company.
Twitter said in the Trademark Objection Application that the trademark' Twitter' that Liu Chen applied for registration and the trademark that he used earlier belong to the 382 similar group in Category 38 of the Similar Goods and Services Classification Table, and all are similar to his core business, which constitutes an approximate trademark designated for use in the same/similar service provider and should not be registered.
' If the dissenting trademark is approved for registration and use, it will inevitably lead to confusion and misunderstanding among consumers.' Twitter stated this in the Trademark Objection Application.
Xie Huisheng, on the other hand, thinks that there is a significant difference between Liu Chen's trademark application and Twitter's trademark service in terms of service category. From the service content, Twitter has been approved for use in electronic communication services, online communication equipment rental and other services. Liu Chen's trademark is designated to be used in services such as information transmission, telephone communication, computer terminal communication and e-mail, and this service provides support for the B2B/C online trading platform established by Liu Chen, and manufacturers, distributors and agents of local products can sell local products to the public based on this website. According to the Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet published by China Internet Network Information Center, network applications are divided into four categories, namely, information acquisition, business transactions, communication and online entertainment. According to this classification, citation trademarks (Twitter) are used in communication, while disputed trademarks (Twitter) are used in business transactions, and the two services are far from each other. "
' On the other hand, from the service object, the e-commerce platform originally planned to be called' Twitter' is aimed at people who have the needs of local products trading, such as manufacturers, distributors, agents and end consumers, while the social network platform of the third party is aimed at people who have the needs of communication and exchange, such as instant information acquisition and instant sharing, and the service objects are clearly distinguished.' Xie Huisheng said.