Research On The Identification Of Distinctiveness Of Sound Trademarks In China

With the rapid development of economy and the continuous enrichment and innovation of people’s thinking,the traditional use value of trademarks is shrinking,and the value and advantages of new trademarks can be found.Sound trademarks are paid more and more attention by various economic subjects due to their particularity.Many countries and regions in the world have written sound trademarks into the Trademark Law for protection,China’s trademark law amended in 2014,the first to sound the sound trademark into the ranks of trademark protection,this revision of the Trademark Law to include sound trademark into the law is a great progress in China’s trademark law,On the one hand,it has enriched the types of trademarks in China and promoted the development and progress of laws related to trademarks.On the other hand,as more and more sound trademarks have been registered,the protection awareness of sound trademarks in all walks of life has been strengthened,which can greatly stimulate the economic vitality.At present,China explicitly allows the registration of sound trademarks,But the new trademark law and trademark law implementing regulations and other relevant laws and regulations are made on the significance of the traditional trademark decided that the rules,the significance of sound trademark has not been the cognizance of new clear,but only rely on the trademark review and hearing standards while voice of does not have significant negative type list,but given the limitations of regulation is relatively rough and listing way,in practice is still not a very good solution to solve the significant problems.As a result,compared with the United States,the European Union and other developed countries or regions,China’s voice trademark registration rate is very low.Therefore,the identification of the distinctness of sound trademarks is the biggest problem and difficulty for the registration of sound trademarks in China at present.In this regard,it is particularly important to unify the judgment criteria of the distinctness of sound trademarks and clarify the influencing factors for the identification of the distinctness.This paper adopts literature analysis method,summary method,judicial case analysis and other methods to do a relatively systematic research on the recognition of the distinctness of sound trademark.The content of this paper includes the following four parts.The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly introduces the research background and distinctiveness of this topic,literature review and innovation points.The second chapter introduces the relevant theories of the distinctiveness of sound trademarks,which is mainly divided into two parts.The first part briefly introduces the distinctiveness of sound trademarks,and analyzes the differences in the distinctiveness recognition between sound trademarks and other trademarks by comparing them with traditional trademarks.The second part mainly summarizes the current relevant provisions on the recognition of the distinctiveness of sound trademarks in China,which are mainly related to four aspects,the judgment criteria,influencing factors,the distinctiveness of functional sound and universal sound.The third chapter mainly analyzes the legal provisions and practice of the recognition of sound trademark significance outside China.This paper mainly analyzes the legal provisions and practices of the European Union,some European countries and the United States,analyzing and summarizing their experiences and using them for reference in the process of recognizing the distinctiveness of sound trademarks in China.The fourth chapter mainly is divided into two parts,the first part is to analyze the disputes existing in the recognition of the significance of sound trademark in China,mainly analyzes several cases such as the administrative case of Tencent company’s message prompt tone,to find out the defects in the judicial cognizance of distinctiveness sound trademark in China,Including the presence or absence of inherent distinctiveness and influencing factors,obtained distinctiveness proof standard and the influence factor,whether functional sound and universal sound are distinctiveness or not,and the effect of originality on the distinctiveness of sound trademarks.The second part mainly puts forward some suggestions on the problems in the first part: one is to recognize the inherent distinctiveness of sound trademarks and list several important factors that affect the inherent distinctiveness of sound trademarks;The second is to affirm the consumer questionnaire as the best way to prove the significance.In addition,the influential factors on the distinctiveness are also need to be listed.Thirdly,the distinctiveness of functional sound and universal sound is clarified.The fourth is to acknowledge the inherent distinctiveness of the universal sound.