There are two types of cybersquatting: cybersquatting in a narrow sense and cybersquatting in a broad sense. In a narrow sense, cybersquatting refers to the competitive behavior of registering a trademark before the original trademark owner to obtain economic benefits. Trademark registration in a broad sense includes the above situations, and also includes the act of registering other people's famous company names or other names with certain reputation in society as their own trademarks in order to obtain economic benefits.
Trademark registration behavior mainly has the following manifestations:
(1) registered unregistered trademarks. China's Trademark Law stipulates that if two or more applicants for trademark registration apply for registration with the same or similar trademarks on the same commodity or similar commodities, they shall make a preliminary examination of the trademarks applied for earlier and make an announcement, and reject the applications of others without making an announcement. If there is no objection or no objection is established within 3 months of the announcement period, registration shall be granted. China's Trademark Law does not give any exclusive right to unregistered trademark users. Where a trademark is used without registration, the user has no right to prevent others from using the same or similar trademark on the same commodity, service or similar commodity or service or to apply for prior registration. Only when the users of unregistered trademarks and users apply for registration on the same day, according to the current situation of trademark use and application for registration in China, the applicants who used earlier will be taken care of so that they can register. This scope is limited, and it cannot restrict others from applying for registration, nor can it violate the principle of applying first and then registering. Users of unregistered trademarks have the right to choose not to apply for registration of the trademarks they use; If he did a lot of advertising for the unregistered trademark he used but didn't apply, or applied for trademark registration later than others for the same or similar goods or services, as a result, others applied for trademark registration first, which can only be explained as: 1 Independent decision-making led him to ignore one thing after another; 2. Weak awareness of trademark rights; 3. Sleep on the power supply. Of course, this does not provide him with legal protection. In countries where the exclusive right to use a trademark is registered, as long as the business entity has a strong sense of trademark rights and applies for trademark registration before or at the same time of using the trademark, there will be no preemptive registration of the trademark. The view that all registered trademark registration is illegal is essentially advocating the use of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, which fundamentally negates the system of exclusive right to use a registered trademark, which is contrary to China's Trademark Law.
Article 31 of China's Trademark Law stipulates that the application for trademark registration shall not damage the prior rights of others, nor shall it preempt the registration of trademarks that others have used and have certain influence by unfair means. Therefore, it is prohibited by law to conditionally confirm the preemptive registration of trademarks used by others. While adhering to the principle of registration first and application first, the law has made reasonable adjustments to the absolute principle of application first. It is emphasized that the application must be based on the principle of honesty first, and the trademark that has been used by others and has established reputation should not be stolen as its own trademark to apply for registration, which makes up for the defects of the absolute registration principle and prevents the occurrence of unfair situations in fact.
(2) The registered trademark right of a registered trademark is a right determined by national laws, but it is limited by geography and time. Regionality determines that a trademark is protected in one or several specific countries and regions, but it cannot be protected in countries or regions other than the registered country or region. This may cause Party A to register trademark A on B goods or services in country C. If Party A fails to register the same application in country D, it may happen that Party B applies for registration of trademark A or a trademark similar to trademark A on B goods or services or applies for registration in country D before Party A and gets approval. Although this kind of preemption trademark registration seems morally questionable, there is nothing wrong with legal registration.
In the past, due to the weak trademark awareness of business operators in China, the trademarks that they owned in China and had a certain or good reputation in some countries and regions were pre-registered by others in that country or region, which led to the inability of business operators in China to use the original trademarks registered in China in that country or region and eventually withdrew from the market in that country or region; Or continue to use the trademark and occupy the market, but pay a high price to obtain the ownership of the trademark transferred by the other party; Others have to start a new stove. I have suffered losses in economic interests, but there is nothing I can do legally. However, with the development of China's market economy, it is becoming more and more common for some domestic enterprises and individuals to register foreign well-known trademarks in China first in order to seek economic benefits.
(3) It is more complicated to rush to register well-known trademarks than to rush to register unregistered trademarks and registered non-well-known trademarks. After a well-known trademark is pre-registered by others in another country or region, whether the original owner's exclusive right to use the trademark can be protected in that country or region ultimately depends entirely on the determination of the competent authorities of the country or region where protection is requested according to domestic laws. If the preemptive registration of others is justified, the original trademark owner will lose the ownership of the trademark within his jurisdiction and cannot be protected; On the other hand, if you think that the registration is improper, you can get protection.
(4) Pre-registration of other prior rights. At present, a prominent contradiction in intellectual property protection is the conflict of rights. Some post-obligees use legal gaps to maliciously register other rights such as design patents or copyrights that others have obtained as trademarks.
To solve the conflicts of different types of intellectual property rights, the existing laws have a basic principle, that is, the principle of protecting prior rights. This principle is the embodiment of the principle of fairness, honesty and credit in civil law, and it is specified in both patent law and trademark law. Judging from the current laws, regulations and rules, the rights and obligations arising from patent rights and trademark rights are stipulated by different laws, and there is no distinction between higher and lower, stronger and weaker. If there is a conflict of rights, the principle of protecting prior rights will apply.
To sum up, in the face of various forms of trademark registration, only by clarifying their respective legal nature can we attack the existing trademark legal system head-on and safeguard the legal dignity and the legitimate interests of the parties.