First, this matter involves Xiaoyao Hulatang brand.
1. In the trademark dispute case of Xiaoyao Town, Xiaoyao Town is an ordinary trademark, not necessarily registered by an association, but by an enterprise. In this case, the so-called "membership fee" should not be charged by the representative of the association.
2. In the trademark dispute case of "Tongguan Roujiamo", the trademark is a geographical indication registered by an association as a collective trademark, and the rights must be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the Trademark Law. Since it is a collective trademark, it should be used inside the collective members, not outside the collective. It has no right to license the use of the trademark to merchants outside the specific area of Tongguan and collect the joining fee. At the same time, there is no right to prohibit the use of the place name in the collective trademarks of other businesses in Tongguan area.
Second, the association needs to be qualitative in suing businesses.
If it is an effective judgment, if the merchant loses the case, it can be prosecuted separately according to law. If the judgment has not yet taken effect, you can continue to defend your rights through follow-up proceedings. In other cases, the two parties can reach a settlement, and the judgment of the court can not be executed, which is decided by both parties.
Third, the association's prosecution of merchants may be out of line.
Trademark registrants have crossed the line in trademark protection. After the national registration, the registrant will really enjoy the trademark right and can defend his rights. However, trademark rights also have their own boundaries, not only when the registration is approved, but also when the rights are protected in the future, such as the scope of trademark protection. Now the so-called rights protection behavior has crossed the line.
Intellectual property itself is a tool of market competition and has two sides. If this system is used well, it will encourage market competition and innovation, but if it is abused, it will also hinder competition and innovation. Judging from the fact that the Chinese hamburger in Tongguan, Xiaoyao Town has no right to collect franchise fees, it reminds us that intellectual property rights holders should always uphold the mentality of fair competition and not abuse intellectual property rights.