"Trademark cybersquatting" leads to a heated discussion: How did my name become your trademark?
Xinhua News Agency, Xiamen, August 8th Question: How did my name become your trademark? — — "Trademark cybersquatting" is a hot topic
Xinhua News Agency "China Net" reporters Yan Zhihong, Joline and Tang Tao
"My name is Jing Hanqing. I am 22 years old. The day before yesterday, I was told that I could not use my name." Recently, bilibili’s UP host (network anchor) Jing Hanqing spoke on various social platforms, which attracted the attention of netizens.
In recent years, with the vigorous development of the media industry, some "interested people" have made the abacus of "grabbing trademarks". According to the investigation by the reporter of "China Netscape", the rights and interests of some media people have also been damaged.
The "name defense war" of "Jing Hanqing"
On August 3, an article titled "I was told that I couldn’t use my name for 22 years and asked me to change my name!" How do I defend my rights! The online video of "Jing Hanqing" attracted the attention of netizens on bilibili, and the video publisher was the UP owner.
In the video, "Jing Hanqing" spits, and the name he has used for 22 years has been maliciously squatted by others. The other party also sent himself relevant certification materials, asking him to pay the trademark purchase fee of "Jing Hanqing" or stop using the name of "Jing Hanqing". By 10: 00 on the 6th, the number of related video views had exceeded 14 million, and nearly 200,000 netizens participated in online discussions.
According to the reporter’s investigation, there are seven trademark owners of "Jing Hanqing", and this time, it was an "electronic product seller" from industrial and commercial registration in Wuhu, Anhui. In addition to "Jing Hanqing", the enterprise also owns or attempts to apply for 102 trademark rights.
In an interview with reporters, Jing Hanqing said that he had submitted an application for trademark invalidation to the relevant departments and was collecting materials to accuse the other company of malicious cybersquatting.
Coincidentally, WeChat WeChat official account’s "bad review" also sent a tweet, saying that it had encountered a "trademark cybersquatting" incident — — A company named Shenyang Xiaoermei Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. tried to register its trademark in the name of "Bad Review Jun" many times.
“‘ Bad review jun ’ It is the IP of our company. We have applied for a registered trademark many times before, but due to ‘ Bad review ’ The word has a derogatory meaning, so it has never been applied for. " The person in charge of the WeChat official account said in an interview with reporters, "I didn’t expect that we were also ‘ Stare at ’ Yes. "
According to insiders, there are many small companies that focus on "registered trademarks". With the rapid development of "online celebrity economy", these "people with heart" will hoard trademarks in order to "claim rights" from the popular media in the future.
"Standby claim" has become a new sign of trademark preemption
During the interview, the reporter learned that trademark squatters will use the public information on the Internet to register the names of self-media people and mobile apps in a "cast net" manner. Once the trademark counterparts in the "net" are "on fire", they will come to the door and ask them to pay a high trademark right use fee or force them to change their names.
Lin Haihan, director of the Shanghai Trademark Review and Cooperation Center, said that at present, the registration cost and later maintenance cost of trademarks in China are very low, which has led some malicious registered companies to "arbitrarily register" and even reverse their trademarks many times after registration.
According to the registered industrial and commercial information, the business scope of the registered enterprise is the wholesale and retail of electronic products, which is not directly related to online video production. However, among the 103 trademarks owned or attempted by the enterprise, there are 30 trademarks in the category of "education and entertainment" and 28 trademarks in the category of "scientific instruments" respectively. Most of these trademarks, like "Jing Hanqing", are self-media program names or related software application names.
Lu Yang, a lawyer who has been engaged in commercial litigation for a long time, told reporters that some companies have become "professional cybersquatters" because trademark information is public, and they only need to check which famous projects or categories have not applied for registration, so they can register first.
"It only takes one or two thousand yuan to register a trademark, but the income from transfer is dozens of times that of registration." In Lu Yang’s view, with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, malicious cybersquatting of trademarks has become increasingly frequent.
Once caught by the other party, it is almost a "hit". The reporter consulted the trademark infringement rules of WeChat WeChat official account, which made it clear that if the name of WeChat official account infringes the trademark right, the trademark owner can provide a paper trademark certificate after successful registration to make a complaint. As long as the trademark scope is similar to the business content of the respondent’s account, the infringement fact can be established.
How to curb the "rush to register" extending to the Internet economy?
On the 5th, bilibili announced that a third-party company was found to have maliciously registered several UP owners with nicknames as trademarks. Due to the low cost of cybersquatting, high cost of safeguarding rights and long trial period, this behavior has caused great trouble to the UP main group. In this regard, bilibili will not ask the UP owner to modify the nickname because the nickname of the UP owner has been maliciously registered by other institutions.
The relevant person in charge of bilibili told reporters on the 6th that at present, Bili Bili has assisted all UP owners who have signed the exclusive brokerage agreement to complete the trademark registration application of their nicknames. If necessary, other UP owners can entrust bilibili to assist in applying for nickname trademarks, and at the same time, there will be a special person to provide UP owners with help and guidance related to trademark rights protection.
Bilibili said that once the UP owner found that the nickname was registered as a trademark by others, he could directly contact bilibili, and bilibili would provide a series of follow-up legal assistance according to the specific situation, including but not limited to trademark revocation application, invalid application and follow-up legal proceedings.
The reporter learned that China National Intellectual Property Administration is studying and formulating "Several Provisions on Regulating Trademark Registration" and has publicly solicited opinions from the society. The provisions include the specific application situation and considerations of Article 4 of the Trademark Law, as well as the application situation and fine range of warning and fine for malicious registration.
Lin Haihan suggested that China can learn from international practices to increase the cost of trademark registration, and at the same time, with the increase of trademark registration years, the annual maintenance fee will be increased year by year to protect the legitimate rights of trademark users.























