The Conflict And Integration Of Trademark Rights And Freedom Of Expression

The functions of trademarks that recognize the source of goods and divisions,the function of quality assurance,the bearing of goodwill and advertising are the basis of the trademark protection system,and the functions of the trademark to communicate and convey information are under conditions of others.The basis for fair use,at this time,the trademark parody has attracted people's attention in its exaggerated and humorous manner.At the same time,with the expansion of the scope of application of confusion theory and the proposal of dilution theory,the scope of trademark rights is also expanding,so Trademark parody based on freedom of expression has conflicted with the expansion of trademark rights.In European and American countries,comments and satires on the cultural connotation of trademarks are very common.Among them,parody behavior is the most common,and parody has its own characteristics.Conflicts or dilutions often conflict with trademarks.Conflicts and coordination between trademark rights and freedom of expression have become an important issue that countries urgently need to address.From a comprehensive perspective,the United States has a relatively mature research on trademark parody,both in terms of legislation.There is a more complete regulation method in judicial practice.This article is mainly in the comparative method.Based on the analysis of legislation and judicial practice cases in the United States,the main line of trademark parody of trademark dilution,trademark confusingly criteria and expressed as a trademark parody based on the protection of freedom of discussion.This article believes that to solve the conflict and integration problem between trademark rights and freedom of expression,the parody behavior in the freedom of expression should be divided into commercial parody and non-commercial parody.The former is only subject to legal parody and is subject to free speech as commercial speech.Protection,that is,the acceptance of the possibility of consumer confusion and all factors of dilution,meets the standards for fair use,and can be exempt from trademark liability.The latter is a non-commercial use of trademarks and is subject to a relatively high level of protection.Exempted from trademark liability,under this line of thinking,it puts forward suggestions for China's legislation andjudicial practice.