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“Trademark Roll” frequently appear, the Trademark Office strikes a heavy blow
07.29.2021

“Trademark Roll” frequently appear, the Trademark Office strikes a heavy blow

In the past 2020, news in the trademark field has repeatedly appeared in hot searches. Waves of “free-riding” and “reverse passing-off” trademark cybersquatting news have attracted widespread attention. The problem of malicious cybersquatting and hoarding of trademarks has been around for a long time, and has become more and more serious in recent years, harming the development of new economic and new form of industry.

In January this year, at a seminar held by the Law School of Tsinghua University, experts pointed out that the problem of trademark cybersquatting, hoarding and subsequent profit-making with malicious complaints has become a social nuisance. “Trademark Roll” disrupted business order and disrupted the business environment.

The cybersquatting and hoarding of trademarks and the subsequent malicious complaints have taken on a new form in the context of the platform economy, that is, through cybersquatting of keywords used to describe products on e-commerce platforms, hot internet words and the name (name, nick name, stage name) of the online celebrities of major platforms and then file a trademark infringement complaint to the platform, intending to ask for high licensing fees, withdrawal fees, even blackmail the merchants under the threat of “notice-delete” rule of the e-commerce platform.

“The gray industry chain of malicious trademark registration is constantly renovating, spreading to the emerging internet industry and digital economy, seriously damaging the business order.” relevant intellectual property experts introduced to The Paper that similar cases have been common and need to be strictly controlled.

On January 21, the Director of the State Intellectual Property Office, Shen Changyu, mentioned in his work report at the 2021 National Intellectual Property Office Directors’ Meeting that in 2021, further revisions to the Trademark Law should be investigated and demonstrated to severely crack down on malicious trademarks registration behavior that are not intended for use. Establish a model for rapid trademark rejection and green channel acceleration, and continue to reduce the review and trial cycle of trademark oppositions and review of complex cases.

On February 3, at the year-end summary and commendation meeting for epidemic prevention and control held by the Trademark Office, with regard to doing a good job in 2021, He Zhimin, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office, asked to earnestly study and implement the spirit of the National Intellectual Property Directors Conference, severely crack down on malicious registration and hoarding of trademarks, regulate trademark applications such as “reverse passing-off ” and “rubbing hot spots”, and increase social satisfaction with trademark work. At the same time, continue to deepen trademark reforms, strengthen coordinated development, establish a model for fast trademark rejection and green channel acceleration, and do a good job of trademark protection in new fields and new form of industry.

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