The Paper's reporter Tan Jun intern Hu Yuanyuan
Gu Ailing, the champion of the Beijing Winter Olympics freestyle skiing women's big jump event that has created history for China's ice and snow, has recently become a star sought after by the whole people. This talented athlete, who is less than 18 years old, has brought countless surprises to the Chinese people.
Although many people know "Gu Ailing" for the first time, in fact, this talented girl is not "overnight famous". As early as 2017, the media began to report on Gu Ailing's story. In June 2019, a few days after Gu Ailing announced that he would represent China in the Winter Olympic Medal, the National Trademark Network appeared to register the "Gu Ailing" trademark in multiple categories.
The surging news (www.thepaper.cn) combed and found that at present, the "Gu Ailing" trademark in 11 categories of goods and services such as education and entertainment, advertising and sales has been registered, but the application for ski supplies such as skates and skateboards has not been approved.
Intellectual property experts believe that the trademark that "Gu Ailing" has obtained registration is likely to have improper acts such as malicious preemptive registration and hoarding, and Gu Ailing himself, other units or individuals can request to declare the registered trademark invalid.
Two years ago, it was announced that it would represent China in the gold medal, and "Gu Ailing" was immediately trademarked by others
China Trademark Network has a total of 28 trademark applications for the name "Gu Ailing". Lasts from June 10, 2019 to March 21, 2021.
Of the 28 "Gu Ailing" trademarks, the earliest application was on June 10, 2019. The pictures in this article are from the official website of the State Intellectual Property Office
The earliest application was a subject called "Jiang Hongyu Bookstore in Quyang Township, Donghai County", which registered the "Gu Ailing" trademark on 28 categories of "fitness equipment" such as (ice knife) skates; skis, roller skates, ski poles, snowboards and other goods. After the trademark application was accepted, it was rejected on December 18, 2021 after more than two years of procedures such as "supplementary certification" and "consultation".
The Gu Ailing trademark is not registered on ski supplies.
On the same day, an individual named "Zhang Shuai" in Dunhua City, Jilin Province, also applied for the "Gu Ailing" trademark on 28 categories of "toys, sports equipment, competitive gloves, roller skates" and other goods, as well as 25 types of clothing, shoes and hats. The trademark was rejected.
However, "Zhang Shuai" applied for the "Gu Ailing" trademark in 11 other categories on the same day and was approved. These categories include advertising sales, educational entertainment, leather goods, handmade devices, rope mesh ducts, fabric sheets, scientific instruments, means of transport, and even furniture, light fixtures and air conditioners, kitchen sanitary ware.
According to the China Trademark Network, in addition to the "Jiang Hongyu Bookstore in Quyang Township, Donghai County" and "Zhang Shuai" taking the lead in applying for 15 "Gu Ailing" trademarks on June 10, 2019, from June 27, 2019 to March 21, 2021, there were four entities such as "Chengde Bole Investment Co., Ltd.", "Zheng Ziyu", "Jinghu District Naibao Advertising Design Studio" and "Tianjin Fangfang heduoduo Technology Co., Ltd.", and also applied for 12 "Gu Ailing" trademarks in multiple categories. However, these trademarks are rejected, invalidated or await substantive examination.
The surging news noted that a few days before the above-mentioned earliest trademark application, on June 7, 2019, China News Network just reported the story of ski genius Girl Gu Ai ling who recently joined the Chinese nationality and is expected to win gold in the Olympic Games with the title of "15-year-old American talented skier naturalized in China and is expected to win gold in the Olympic Games".
On the same day, the Beijing News and other media also reported in detail Gu Ailing's past world competition results, looking forward to representing China in the Winter Olympics. Through reports, Gu Ailing's story of "learning to ski at the age of 3, winning the National Junior Ski Championship at the age of 9, and winning the World Cup at the age of 15" is widely known.
As early as before, on February 18, 2019, CCTV also released a documentary "Top of Ice and Snow" to record the growth path of this talented girl and her dream of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Earlier in 2017-2018, The Ring Beijing-Tianjin Network, Sina Sports, NetEase News, China Sports News, etc. all reported on Gu Ailing.
Experts: Obvious squatting, individuals and units can apply for trademark invalidation
The Paper noted that during the epidemic in 2020, a number of entities applied for the registration of "Vulcan Mountain", "Leishen Mountain", "Zhong Nanshan", "Li Wenliang" and other epidemic-related and personal name trademarks, and the State Intellectual Property Office rejected 63 trademarks registered in bad faith on March 3 of that year.
In December 2020, the Tibetan boy "Ding Zhen" in Ganzi, Sichuan Province, became popular, and many entities preemptively registered the "Ding Zhen" trademark, and in February 2021, the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office announced the rejection of 78 trademarks containing the word "Ding Zhen".
In August 2021, the State Intellectual Property Office publicly rejected the preemptive registration of the names and trademarks of Olympic athletes such as Quan Hongchan and Yang Qian.
The Paper has reported many times before that in view of the chaos of trademark squatting and hoarding, the State Intellectual Property Office and the Trademark Office have been paying close attention to and strengthening rectification.
However, the squatting of the name and trademark of "Gu Ailing" dates back to three years ago. On the one hand, Gu Ailing's most well-known moment so far is to win the championship at the Beijing Winter Olympics, on the other hand, many media reports show that Gu Ailing has been famous in the ice and snow sports circle as early as 2019 or even earlier. So, on June 10, 2019, Zhang Shuai and others applied for the registration of the "Gu Ailing" trademark, is it a bad faith trademark squatting behavior? What is the validity of its trademark?
In the view of Ma Shihui, a lawyer at Shanghai Chuangyuan Law Firm, this is an obvious preemptive behavior. Zhao Zhiqing, a lawyer at Jiangsu Jianwen Law Firm, also believes that "it is obvious that the registrant has already seen the huge commercial value of the 'Gu Ailing' trademark as early as three years ago." Gu Ailing's popularity and commercial value have a gradual accumulation process, can only be said that the registrant's commercial awareness is relatively strong, but can not be denied, its subjective has the malicious intention of using Gu Ailing's popularity to obtain improper benefits. ”
Zhao Zhiqing believes that the behavior of squatters can be analyzed from two aspects. First, from the perspective of Gu Ailing's own name rights. As an Olympic champion who made history, he did not "become famous overnight". As early as June 2019, Gu Ailing's popularity has been quite high, from the perspective of the originality of the trademark, the three words "Gu Ailing" are not ordinary words, but words with considerable originality, and the subjective purpose of the relevant subjects to copy other people's names is very obvious. Applying for trademark registration must not harm the existing prior rights of others, gu Ailing could have applied for her own name trademark, but now it has been preemptively registered.
Second, from the perspective of "Gu Ailing" trademarks are registered separately in multiple categories. If the applicant has applied for the "Gu Ailing" trademark for reasons that are completely unrelated to the Olympic champion Gu Ailing, then what is the purpose of applying for 12 trademarks in batches? Is it exceeding the usage requirements? If there is no justifiable reason, the subjective malice of the backorder is obvious. The state is actively cracking down on trademark hoarding. For trademark applications that are not intended for use, they are rejected directly.
The Paper noted that trademark examination agencies actually maintain a certain degree of vigilance against the registration of the "Gu Ailing" trademark. For example, on June 10, 2019, the first application was made for "Jiang Hongyu Bookstore in Quyang Township, Donghai County", and its application to register the "Gu Ailing" trademark on ski supplies such as "(ice knife) skates; skis, roller skates, ski poles, and snowboards" was not approved, but was rejected.
On the same day, Jilin Zhang Shuai's application for the trademark "Gu Ailing" in 13 categories was also rejected in "fitness equipment" and "clothing, shoes and hats", but the trademark applied for by Zhang Shuai in the other 11 categories was registered.
Gu Ailing trademarks are registered in "Pharmaceutical Retail or Service" and "Commercial Management of Athletes".
Zhao Zhiqing said, "If these 11 trademarks are put on the market, they will have a very bad social impact. Because consumers are likely to cause misidentification, they may mistakenly purchase 'Gu Ailing' brand goods or services out of love and recognition of Gu Ailing, in fact, the goods or services have nothing to do with Gu Ailing, nor have they obtained their own authorization. At the same time, the emergence of 'Gu Ailing' brand goods or services is also unfair to competitors in the same industry, because this is a kind of unfair competition. ”
Zhao Zhiqing said that according to Article 44 of the Trademark Law, a registered trademark "is deceptive and is likely to cause the public to misunderstand the quality and other characteristics or place of origin of the goods", "is harmful to socialist morality or has other adverse effects", or obtains registration by deceptive means or other improper means, "the Trademark Office may declare the registered trademark invalid, and other units or individuals may also request the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to declare the registered trademark invalid." ”
Ma Shihui believes that the above-mentioned 11 "Gu Ailing" trademarks are suspected of hoarding, and the latest administrative ruling documents of the SPC show that "hoarding a large number of trademarks for improper benefits is a situation of 'other improper means to obtain registration' as stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 44 of the Trademark Law." ”
Therefore, "for a registered 'Gu Ailing' trademark, Gu Ailing himself may apply to the Trademark Office for invalidation of the trademark on the grounds of damage to the right to a name; other individuals or units may also apply for invalidity of the trademark." Ma Shihui said.
Responsible Editor: Cui Xuan Photo Editor: Jiang Lidong
Proofreader: Liu Wei