The plaintiff in a trademark infringement lawsuit shall be the owner or interested party of a registered trademark. If the plaintiff is not the owner or interested party of the registered trademark, the defendant may make an unconditional defense against the plaintiff. The limitation of action for infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark is two years, counting from the date when the trademark registrant or interested party becomes aware of the infringement. If the trademark registrant or interested party files a lawsuit for more than two years and the infringement continues during the lawsuit, the people's court shall order the defendant to stop the infringement within the validity period of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark.
The defense of free infringement includes:
1, registered trademarks do not use defences.
If the owner of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark cannot prove that the registered trademark has actually been used in the previous three years, nor can he prove that he has suffered other losses due to infringement, the accused infringer shall not be liable for compensation.
2. Legal source defense
If you sell a commodity that you don't know is an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, and you can prove that the commodity was legally obtained by yourself and explain the supplier, you will not be liable for compensation.
Second, what is the infringement of trademark rights?
Any of the following acts is an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark:
1. Using the same trademark as its registered trademark on the same commodity without the permission of the trademark registrant;
2. Without the permission of the trademark registrant, using a trademark similar to its registered trademark on the same kind of goods, or using a trademark identical with or similar to its registered trademark on similar goods, is likely to cause confusion;
3. Selling goods that infringe the exclusive right to use a registered trademark;
4. Forging or manufacturing others' registered trademarks without authorization or selling forged or manufactured registered trademarks without authorization;
5, without the consent of the trademark registrant, change its registered trademark and put the goods with the changed trademark on the market again;
6. Deliberately providing convenient conditions for infringing upon the exclusive right to use a trademark of others and helping others to commit acts of infringing upon the exclusive right to use a trademark;
7, causing other damage to the exclusive right to use a registered trademark of others.
To sum up, if a self-employed person is sued for trademark infringement by others in the process of using a trademark, as a defendant, he should prepare favorable evidence to actively respond to the lawsuit and put forward his own defense opinions in court. Self-employed individuals can respond to the lawsuit on their own or entrust a lawyer. In the defense, it is important to state the fact that they did not cause trademark infringement.