Half Moon talked about the controversy of peppery soup and meat sandwich steamed buns: Don't mess up the rice bowl of local famous food because of grabbing the "fat meat" of the membership fee

Source: Half Moon Talk

Half Moon Talk Commentator Sun Just Right

Alleged infringement, suing for compensation, paying franchise fees... Recently, the media exposed that the Shaanxi "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association" sued more than 100 merchants to the court, on the grounds that the merchants used the "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun" suspected of infringement, and the sued merchants had to pay franchise fees ranging from thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan in addition to compensation before they could continue to use the words "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun".

Coincidentally, in addition to the "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Bun", a number of merchants in Henan Province's "Xiaoyao Town Hu Spicy Soup" have also recently received a court summons, informed that the word "Xiaoyao Town" used by them is suspected of infringement, demanding compensation and payment of franchise fees. After the incident was exposed, the local government said that it had ordered the suspension of trademark rights protection work and organized relevant personnel to carry out investigations.

In response to the above dispute, the State Intellectual Property Office pointed out in response to a reporter's question on November 26 that legally, "Xiaoyao 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.

Although the Tongguan Meat Sandwich Steamed Bun Association and the Hu Spicy Soup Association of Xiaoyao Town, Xihua County, Henan Province, both claim to the outside world that "rights protection" is for unified operation and standardized production, in the eyes of outside public opinion, this kind of "extortion" behavior in the name of "management" but has no legal basis is not only not conducive to the development of food, but also smashes its own rice bowl and destroys local signboards, which can be described as ugly to eat.

As we all know, geographical indication products such as "Tongguan Meat Sandwich Bun" are often a concentrated reflection of the customs and gastronomic culture of a place, and many of them have been precipitated for hundreds of years or even thousands of years, which can be described as local cultural business cards. The main responsibilities of relevant industry associations should be to do a good job in standard setting, quality control, industry management, maintain product reputation, and enhance local cultural competitiveness, rather than privatizing collective trademarks with public welfare attributes, so as to accumulate wealth and attempt monopolistic operations.

It is true that there are some merchants who have irregular behaviors in the use and production of local geographical indication products, such as impure flavor, poor craftsmanship, and some even "hanging sheep's head to sell dog meat", and industry associations do a good job of supervision and standardization, which is where their responsibilities lie. However, the norms should also achieve orderly and refined management on the basis of careful screening, rather than through simple and rude "infringement" prosecution, forced payment of franchise fees and other coercive means, other merchants "netted", so as to make their own "cake".

At present, many places in China have their own geographical indication products, many of which are not only significant representatives of regional culture, but also an indispensable part of national culture, history and culture. Local governments and industry associations should spend more effort on the protection of geographical indication products, so that they are more authentic, more prestigious and more competitive; at the same time, with a longer-term vision and a more open mind, they should break through the "private interests of one place", help products break out of the circle, and make the local economic "cake", do not because of the "meat" of the membership fee, mess up the rice bowl of the local famous food, it is not worth it!

Source: Half Moon On New Media