The Legal Issues Of Sound Trademark In China

This dissertation will investigate the legal protection of sound mark in China.After 2013,the Chinese Trademark Law stipulated that sound could be registered as trademark,thus a lot of corporations intended to register their famous sound as mark as it could provide better protection to these sounds.However in China,there are no substantive registration conditions for sound marks.We do not have specific standards to decide whether two sound marks are similar neither.Therefore,the author wants to address these issues to better protect and promote sound marks in China.After research,the author considers that the registration of sound mark shall satisfy three conditions: legality,distinctiveness and non-functionality.Besides,the doctrine of functionality shall prevail the doctrine of distinctiveness.In other words,if a sound is essential to the product or service's function but is distinctive enough to be a trademark,it still cannot be registered.It is important to figure out how to establish the acquired distinctiveness of sound marks.The author is of the opinion that it can be established by referring to the length,scope,and manner of the sound's use,the advertisement and promotion,and market survey.As for the functionality of sound mark,America and Taiwan have thorough regulations in this issue,and China can imitate these regulations.In this part,the author will try to formulate a legal protection system that is suitable for China by looking at overseas cases and statutes.Moreover,it is also important to know how to determine whether two sound marks are similar during sound mark protection.After investigating the methods of determination about the visual marks,the author believes that most of those methods are also appropriate for sound marks similarity determination.At the meanwhile,expert test is also one of the feasible ways.Finally,the beginning of a sound is crucial of the determination,and musical instrument and music style will also influence the similarity determination.At the end of this dissertation,the author focuses on the defects of Chinese legal system concerning sound marks.China should promulgate specific regulations to improve the sound mark registration conditions and they can refer to expert test when it is necessary.