On May 23, Professor Chen Rongchuan from the University of Taipei gave a lecture on the subject of judicial practice of trademark conflicts at the Institute of International Law of Wuhan University. The lecture was hosted by Associate Professor Qiao Xiongbing, Director of the Department of Private International Law. Associate Professor Gan Yong, Associate Professor Zou Guoyong, Dr. Xu Xiang, Dr. Zhu Lei and graduate students from the Department of International Law participated in the lecture.
Professor Chen Rongchuan first pointed out that in the field of private international law research, some relatively abstract problems were often encountered. Legal conflicts are difficult to identify in actual cases, and the most obvious problems may exist in the field of intellectual property. Therefore, this lecture selected the theme of “Legal Conflicts of Trademark Rights” and analyzed the issues related to legal conflicts of trademark rights from actual cases. Professor Chen Rongchuan's lecture mainly talked about two things: one is the trademark law conflict caused by the parallel import of goods; the other is the trademark law conflict of domestic enterprises in China.
Regarding the conflict of trademark laws caused by the parallel import of goods, Professor Chen Rongchuan discussed the trademark rights involved in parallel import of goods by taking Dawang Paper Co., Dawang (Nantong) Living Goods Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Junao Co., Ltd. as examples. In the case, Professor Chen Rongchuan pointed out that in the case of private international law, the real dispute did not stop at the level of the law applicable to the applicable law, but how it should be applied specifically. Judging from the conclusion of the case, the court believes that parallel importation does not violate the law, which means that the enterprise can import similar products that have obtained trademark rights in China. Then the exclusive, exclusive and comprehensive market share of the trademark rights acquired by the enterprise will lose its originality. The reason behind this may be because China's market is huge, but adopting such a policy will result in limited protection of trademark rights, which may result in companies that obtain trademark rights in the country can only rely on price advantage to compete. At the same time, Professor Chen Rongchuan also analyzed how to judge the “requested land” in Article 50 of the Law on the Application of Foreign-related Civil Relations Law. In addition, Professor Chen Rongchuan also discussed the issue of trademark infringement involved in the import of counterfeit Burberry products in the Burberry case before the Supreme Court of Taiwan.
For the issue of trademark law conflicts between domestic enterprises and foreign manufacturers, Professor Chen Rongchuan used the DONGFENG (Dongfeng) case and the PRETUL case to issue trademark infringement problems caused by domestic enterprises being OEM processed by foreign companies and selling all goods abroad. Analyzed. In addition, Professor Chen Rongchuan also analyzed the unfair competition caused by packaging and decoration involved in the case of Italy Ferrero Company v. Montresor (Zhangjiagang).
Finally, Professor Chen Rongchuan also compared Articles 48 to 50 of the Law on the Application of Foreign-related Civil Relations Law in the Mainland with Article 42 of the Foreign-related Civil Law Application Law in Taiwan. It mainly compares and analyzes the “Proposed Protected Land Law” in the legislation of the mainland and the “Law of Protected Land” in the legislation of Taiwan.
In the discussion session, Professor Chen Rongchuan pointed out that the "foreign civil law applicable law" in Taiwan has not been divided into chapters in consideration of the civil law adopted in Taiwan. The five preparations, that is, from the perspective of substantive law, are divided into identity relations and property relations. In property relations, they are divided into debt relations and material relationships. Intellectual property rights can be considered as a property right subject to rights, and therefore, there is no separate chapter for it. However, Taiwan does not adopt the name "intellectual property rights", thus creating the concept of "rights based on intellectual property." For its special place, for example, the infringement law can be applied at the level of infringement; when the authorized contract involves the claim, it can be in accordance with the applicable law of the credit contract; if it involves the disposition level, that is, the quasi-property level, it will return to In the intellectual property rights, “the law of the place to be protected”, therefore, the provisions in the “Foreign Civil Law Application Law” in Taiwan should be sufficient.
Finally, Associate Professor Gan Yong proposed that although parallel imports are encouraged to create contradictions in the use of trademark rights, enterprises should stipulate this in the signing of the licensing agreement. In the case of an agreement, Dawang Paper Co., Ltd. still allows Juno Company. Importing its commodities, whether there are problems such as excessive price or insufficient quality of similar products in China, should we consider the protection of consumer rights from the policy aspect. In addition, regarding the regional nature of intellectual property rights, such as the United States Trademark Law, it has the effect of extraterritorial application. How should China explain the “requested protected land” and its relationship with the breakthrough of the extraterritorial effect of the trademark? Professor Chen Rongchuan pointed out that the territoriality of trademark rights is reflected in even the same trademarks, different registration countries, and completely different trademark rights. It should be noted that having a trademark right in one country does not mean that it has a trademark right in another country. On a certain level, the effectiveness and location of a country's trademark rights is determined by its legislative policy, the legislative policy is unclear, and judicial decisions may not be considered comprehensive. Cases are not only cases, but cases may also result in changes in industrial migration. The court should consider its impact on the social economy in the process of refereeing. The lecture ended in a lively discussion atmosphere.
(Text / Wang Yiwen)
