On February 8, China's Gu Ailing won the championship in the final of the freestyle skiing women's big jump at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which was loved by the majority of netizens.
But at the same time, careful netizens found that "Gu Ailing" was registered as a trademark as early as June 2019. On February 9, according to the yunnan network, the reporter interviewed industry lawyers on related issues, and the lawyers said that trademark applicants may be punished accordingly.
The reporter found through the inquiry that there were 29 "Gu Ailing" trademark application information. Among them, the 11 "Gu Ailing" trademarks applied for by natural person Zhang Mou in June 2019 have been registered, and the international classification involves education and entertainment, advertising sales, cloth sheets, etc. The "Gu Ailing" trademark process applied for by other companies and natural persons is shown as "rejected" or "invalid trademark".
In this regard, Dong Jianguo, director of the Intellectual Property Center of Yunnan Lingyun Law Firm and deputy director of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Kunming Lawyers Association, said, "If Gu Ailing himself proposes that the trademark is invalid, the State Intellectual Property Office will declare the corresponding trademark invalid. ”
Article 32 of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that an application for trademark registration shall not infringe upon the existing prior rights of others, nor shall it be preemptively registered by improper means a trademark that has been used by others and has a certain impact. In this regard, Dong Jianguo said that it depends on whether the trademark applicant can submit evidence to prove that the trademark was not registered because of Gu Ailing's own fame, "We understand the three words 'Gu Ailing' from the semantics of Chinese, it is of no practical significance, generally speaking, if it is not because of her fame registration, it is impossible to say." ”
At the same time, Dong Jianguo introduced, "Because Gu Ailing's fame at that time was not as good as today," it is understandable that the trademark examiner passed the application without his knowledge. But now, some people who want to re-register the 'Gu Ailing' trademark will definitely not pass. ”
The reporter also noted that the State Intellectual Property Office implemented the "Special Action Plan for Cracking Down on Bad Faith Trademark Squatting" in March 2021, focusing on the special action to crack down on bad faith trademark squatting. "According to the plan, the relevant trademark applicants may be punished accordingly." Dong Jianguo said.
Source: Yunnan Net