Lin Chen/Text
As the main product of Maopu tartary buckwheat wine, the financial network Sanjing News was involved in the trademark registration disputes of Xiaoqiao, Black Buckwheat and Golden Buckwheat on the same day. The verdict was lost in the second instance. As for whether it will apply for reexamination by the Supreme Court or buy related similar trademarks to alleviate the trademark crisis, Jinpai told Caijing.com that it is still understanding the above matters and cannot confirm more information at the moment.
Recently, Caijing.com discovered through the China Judgment Documents Network that on July 16, the Beijing Higher People’s Court made final second-instance judgments on three trademark registration cases between Jingpai Company and the State Intellectual Property Office. The trademarks No. 29287104 "Golden Buckwheat", No. 29281059 "Xiaoqiao" and No. 29281054 "Black Buckwheat" involved in the case were still found by the court to be similar to the relevant cited trademarks, and were therefore refused registration.
It is worth noting that in the "Xiaoqiao" and "Jinqiao" cases, the court specifically mentioned that trademark rejection review cases are unilateral procedures, so it is impossible for the holder of the cited trademark to participate as the subject of the lawsuit. In this procedure, in the absence of sufficient evidence and argument for the trademark in dispute, especially the reference trademark, the popularity of the trademark cannot actually be taken into consideration.
In the "Black Buckwheat" case, the court held that "Black Buckwheat" is mostly a type of buckwheat. When the mark is designated for use on "distilled beverages, liquor" and other commodities, it is easy to cause related The public mistakenly believed that the product was made from black buckwheat or contained black buckwheat ingredients, which caused the relevant public to misunderstand the raw materials and other characteristics of the product. Therefore, the trademark in dispute is a sign that cannot be used as a trademark under the 2013 Trademark Law.
The registration applications for the three major trademarks have failed. How much impact will it have on the sales of Maopu tartary buckwheat wine? Jinpai did not provide a substantive reply to this question. However, Caijing.com discovered through the Tmall Maopu flagship store that its 42-proof 125ml 6-bottle Xiaoqiao is one of the few products in the store's tartary buckwheat wine with a total sales volume of over 10,000. At the same time, black buckwheat and golden buckwheat are also among the few links with sales of over 1,000 for the store's tartary buckwheat series.
In fact, the possible impact of trademark disputes is not only assessed by sales scale, but also the duration is one of the factors to consider.
Finance Network discovered through the China Trademark Network that Jinpai filed an application for registration of the above-mentioned trademark in early 2018. However, the cited trademarks found to be similar to it in the judgment were applied for registration in 2001 at the earliest and 2015 at the latest. In addition, the exclusive period of relevant cited trademarks is usually calculated from 2013/2015/2016/2019, which can be as long as ten years.
From the perspective of product categories, the scope of use of Jinpai's registered trademark is Category 33 3301 Group, including fruit wine (containing alcohol); aperitifs; distilled beverages; liqueurs; spirits (beverages) ); alcoholic beverages (except beer); liquor; edible alcohol; shochu; wine. ) often overlaps with the approved use scope of cited trademarks.
Based on this, Caijing.com asked Jinpai whether they would file a retrial application with the Supreme Court for the second-instance judgment, accept the judgment and re-register to circumvent the restrictions in other ways, or directly purchase the cited trademark. Ensure compliance sales of the three major products. However, Jinpai said that it is still understanding the above-mentioned matters and cannot confirm more information at the moment.