Recently, the "Xiaoyao Town" Peppery Soup, "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun", and "Korla Fragrant Pear" have successively attracted attention due to trademark rights protection incidents.
On November 26, the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association issued an apology letter on the protection of the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun trademark, apologizing to the national Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Operator, "We realized our own mistake, that is, we lost the purpose of the Association to 'not forget the original intention and wholeheartedly serve the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Operator'."
On the same day, the WeChat public account of the Korla Fragrant Pear Association in Bazhou, Xinjiang, issued a statement saying: The association does not have a high franchise fee, nor does it force merchants to join the association; the association belongs to social groups, is a non-profit organization, and there is no case of suing for wealth accumulation in normal rights protection.
There are also restaurant operators in Kunming, Yunnan Province, who have been sued for trademarks. Recently, many restaurant operators in Kunming whose names contain the word "glasses" have been sued for trademark disputes.
The Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association apologized
Recently, it has been reported that a number of merchants in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, who have been operating "Xiaoyao Town Hu Spicy Soup" for more than ten years, were sued for trademark infringement by the Xiaoyao Town Hu Spicy Soup Association because of the use of the three words "Xiaoyao Town" on the door number. Merchants who want to continue to use the name must pay their dues every year, otherwise they need to make compensation.
In addition, also in Henan, dozens of merchants of meat sandwich steamed bread snack bars reported that the meat sandwich steamed buns they sold were sued by the "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association" in Weinan, Shaanxi Province, because they had the word "Tongguan", and asked them to compensate 30,000 to 50,000 yuan in infringement fees, and if they wanted to continue to use the word "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Buns", they had to pay 99,800 yuan.
In the early morning of November 26, the State Intellectual Property Office responded to this in the form of answering reporters' questions.
The State Intellectual Property Office pointed out that, legally speaking, "Runaway Town" is an ordinary trademark, and its registrant cannot collect the so-called "membership fee" accordingly. "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Bun" is a geographical indication registered as a collective trademark, and its registrant has no right to license the use of the geographical indication collective trademark to merchants outside the specific area of Tongguan and collect a franchise fee. At the same time, it has no right to prohibit merchants in a specific area of Tongguan from properly using the geographical names in the collective trademarks of geographical indications.
According to the Henan Radio and Television Station's "Big Reference", on November 26, the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association issued an apology letter on the protection of the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun trademark, and apologized to the national Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Operator.
The Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bread Association said in its apology letter: "It has brought serious troubles and troubles to the majority of meat sandwich steamed bun operators. After the criticism, correction and help of many media friends and experts and scholars across the country, we have realized our own mistakes, that is, the purpose of the association to 'not forget the original intention, wholeheartedly serve the Tongguan meat sandwich steamed bun operator' has been lost, we deeply feel remorseful, hereby, sincerely apologize to everyone! ”
The apology letter also said that the rights protection of the operators of meat sandwich steamed buns in Tongguan across the country should be stopped immediately. Matters related to early rights protection will be actively and properly handled. The association will continue to provide services for the operators of Tongguan meat sandwich steamed buns throughout the country, from various aspects of operation process, process technology, quality characteristics and so on.
According to the Qilu Evening News, the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association has sued more than 20 merchants in Shangqiu, Henan, and all of them have been temporarily withdrawn. The judge suggested that in order to avoid trouble, the merchants had better rectify during this time, because it does not rule out the possibility that the plaintiff may sue again," the State Intellectual Property Office responded that the franchise fee was not allowed, but did not say that it did not constitute infringement. ”
The Korla Pear Association responds to trademark disputes
According to the "Big Reference", on November 21, hundreds of fruit merchants in Luoyang City claimed that they used the "Korla Fragrant Pear" trademark for selling fragrant pears, and were sued by the Korla Fragrant Pear Association of Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang for infringement. Some fruit sellers said that 22 yuan a box of fragrant pears, fined him 6,000 yuan, sold fruit for more than thirty years, and has not heard of fruit infringement.
On the fruit box on display, it is indeed printed with the words "Korla fragrant pear" with a peacock pattern. In addition to many merchants in the farmers' market who have paid a fine of 6,000 yuan, some other supermarkets or shopping malls in Luoyang have encountered similar situations. The most confusing thing for merchants is that they don't know how to distinguish whether a product is infringing or not.
According to Qixinbao information, the Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture Korla Fragrant Pear Association is a social organization established in 1994, and the registration management authority is the Bazhou Civil Affairs Bureau. According to the information of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the trademark "Korla Fragrant Pear" was applied for by the Korla Fragrant Pear Association in June 1995, the date of registration announcement was November 7, 1996, the trademark type was proof, and the international classification was 31. The exclusivity period is currently until November 6, 2026.
Qixinbao information also shows that in recent years, the Korla Fragrant Pear Association has sued many fruit shops in many places for trademark infringement disputes, involving more than 800 judicial cases.
On November 26, in response to a number of fruit merchants circulating on the Internet that they were sued for selling fragrant pears and using the "Korla Fragrant Pear" trademark, the Xinjiang Bazhou Korla Fragrant Pear Association issued a statement saying that the "Korla Fragrant Pear" trademark No. 892019 was the first geographical indication certification trademark in China registered in 1996 and was recognized as a well-known trademark in China in October 2006. On September 14, 2020, "Korla Pear" became the first batch of geographical indication products protected by the European Union. In the Bazhou region of Xinjiang, 100,000 farmers have lifted themselves out of poverty by planting Korla pears.
According to the association, the specific quality of "Korla pear" is determined by the unique natural factors of its planting area, and according to the rules governing the use of the certification trademark of "Korla pear", the suitable planting areas of the origin of "Korla pear" are: Peacock River Basin and Tarim River Basin.
The association said that with the best-selling of Korla pears, some unscrupulous merchants will sell pears from non-Korla origins such as red crisps and ordinary pears in the name of "Korla pears" in the name of "Korla pears", with the purpose of raising prices, deceiving consumers and seeking high profits.
It is worth noting that in response to the protection of the rights of the Korla Fragrant Pear Association, many netizens have sided with the "Fragrant Pear".
Some netizens said, "This is different from the nature of meat sandwich steamed buns, those are craft technology, fruits pay attention to natural conditions of climate, and rice in other places cannot be called wuchang rice." Henan pears pretending to be Korla are problematic." Some netizens who claim to be home in Xinjiang also said, "The local people can't buy more than 20 yuan a box of real Korla fragrant pears, Henan this is definitely fake, and if you don't let people defend their rights, then they will never be able to buy the real one." Some netizens believe that some people take advantage of the situation to take the rhythm, "not korla pear with Korla pear label, but is not infringement, a group of imaginary geniuses, or the punishment is too light."
Popular science blogger "Chef Zhong in the Jianghu" said that the matter of Korla fragrant pears cannot be simply equated with Tongguan meat sandwich steamed buns, to see what the specific situation is. Tongguan refers to a production method and flavor, similar to Wuhan hot dry noodles, Liuzhou snail powder, Lanzhou beef noodles and so on. The Korla in the Korla pear has a certain meaning of "origin", a bit like Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, Zhangqiu scallion, Wuchang rice and so on.
The barbecue restaurant was prosecuted for containing "glasses" in its name
"The word 'glasses' has been used for nearly 20 years since the registered trademark was registered in 2003, and not long ago the defendant suddenly infringed..." On September 25 this year, Mr. Yang, the owner of the "glasses shop" in Guandu Ancient Town, Kunming, received a court summons, saying that the trademark "glasses" he used was infringing, and the other party demanded 50,000 yuan in economic losses and the demolition of similar store signs and doors.
Mr. Yang introduced that since 1990, his wife has begun to sell Guandu rice dumplings in Guandu Ancient Town. Since 1993, he has been running a shop with his wife. "Because I wear glasses, everyone calls it 'Glasses 粑粑', and then we used this name to make the name of the store, and in 2003 we applied for a trademark, and 'Glasses 粑粑' also became the signature of our family." After nearly 20 years of registering trademarks, Mr. Yang did not expect to be sued by Bao Mouyan of Yinchuan, Ningxia.
Like Mr. Yang, there are also 5 barbecue shops with "glasses" in the name of the store. "Two of the grills I run have been certified by the State Intellectual Property Office from 2017 to 2019." Mr. Zhang, who runs cucumber camp glasses barbecue shop, authentic glasses barbecue shop and brother glasses barbecue shop, said that the three barbecue shops he runs are chain stores, but the names are different, of which the cucumber camp glasses barbecue shop has been open for 23 years. "We have also obtained trademark rights, why do you want to sue us?"
The plaintiff, Bao Mouyan, was the trademark owner of the registered trademark "Glasses", which was approved for registration by the State Trademark Office on May 7, 2000. Approved use items include restaurants and restaurants. Mr. Bao requested the court to order the defendants to stop using the "glasses" trademark logo for store signs and doors, and prohibit the use of the above logos in the provision of services or external publicity. At the same time, the defendant was ordered to compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 50,000 yuan, and the defendant had to bear all the litigation costs.
The operators of these 6 catering companies believe that they named their stores glasses, which are called by diners according to their physical characteristics, because they all wear glasses. In addition, glasses is a commonly used term, anyone can use, and the operators of glasses, cucumber camp glasses barbecue, and authentic glasses barbecue have also registered 43 types of trademarks.
Some lawyers said that the trademark is a striking logo with distinctiveness, and the word "glasses" lacks distinctive features. In the Yunguichuan area, people often use "glasses" to refer to people who wear glasses, which is a title and a colloquial language, and in life, there are many everyday words similar to this. "The saliency is not strong, the scope of legal protection is very narrow, and we cannot think that as long as the name of the store and the signboard bear the word 'glasses' are infringing."
Editor| Lu Xiangyong and Du Hengfeng
Proofreading | Cheng Peng
Image source: Photo.com-500078750
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