1、 Three aspects of the revision of the Trademark Law

1. Intensify efforts to crack down on malicious trademark registration

The number of trademark applications in China has ranked first in the world for consecutive years. However, the increasingly large-scale and professional problems of malicious registration and trademark hoarding have also followed, which has become a stubborn disease that puzzles the obligees and trademark management departments at home and abroad. The revision of the trademark law has many bright spots in regulating the registration of malicious trademarks.

First of all, Article 4 adds the provision that "malicious trademark registration applications not for use shall be rejected". At the same time, articles 33 and 44 have also made corresponding adjustments to include malicious trademark registration not for use as an absolute cause in the trademark objection and invalidation procedures. So far, an all-round strike against malicious trademark registration has been formed in the three links of trademark application, objection and invalidity.

In addition, this amendment has made stricter provisions on the fiduciary agency obligations of trademark agencies.

2. Increase the amount of trademark compensation and increase the amount of punitive compensation. Better protect the interests of legitimate trademark owners.

Another highlight of this amendment is to increase the amount of legal compensation for trademark infringement from threemillion yuan to fivemillion yuan, that is, the court may make a judgment to pay compensation of less than fivemillion yuan according to the circumstances of the infringement when the actual loss cannot be calculated according to the loss of the obligee, the profit of the infringer or the reasonable multiple of the trademark license fee involved in the case.

In addition, the standard of punitive damages was raised from "more than one time and less than three times" to "more than one time and less than five times".

3. Clarify the right of the obligee to request the court to dispose of the counterfeit goods and their manufacturing tools; Increase the illegal cost of infringers and intensify the crackdown on counterfeiting registered trademarks.

Article 63 add the fourth paragraph to Article 63: when trying trademark dispute cases, the people's court shall, at the request of the obligee, order the destruction of goods that are counterfeit registered trademarks, except in special circumstances; The materials and tools mainly used to manufacture commodities with counterfeit registered trademarks shall be ordered to be destroyed without compensation; Or, under special circumstances, order to prohibit the aforesaid materials and tools from entering commercial channels without compensation.

In addition, in view of some misconceptions about the so-called "fake but not inferior" phenomenon in the society, the new fifth paragraph clearly stipulates that "goods with fake registered trademarks shall not enter the commercial channel after only removing the fake registered trademarks.

Malicious trademark registration not only seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and disturbs the order of trademark management, but also runs counter to the road of establishing and developing independent brands in China. Although there are some deficiencies in the legal provisions, the expanded interpretation of the legal provisions plays a certain role in the application of trademark infringement litigation. The revision of the trademark law makes it clear that malicious registration applications not for the purpose of use should be rejected, and the punishment on agencies operating malicious trademark registration has been increased, which has safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of legitimate trademark registrants and promoted the honest operation of the market.