Research On The Recognition Of Fair Use Of Geographical Indication Trademarks

In recent years,a series of geographical indication trademark rights protection cases have attracted wide attention from the society.Due to the public resource attributes of place names and product generic names in geographical indication trademarks,the significant identification of geographical indication trademarks is low.In geographical indication trademark infringement cases,the legitimate use of geographical indication trademarks has become the main defense of the accused infringer,and also the focus of disputes in judicial practice.There are no clear provisions on the recognition standard of the fair use of the geographical indication trademark in current law.In practice,there also exist different judgments in this issue.The imperfect identification standard and inconsistent thinking of identification are the main obstacles in determining whether the legitimate use of the geographical indication trademark is constituted in practice.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper consists of four parts.The first part elaborates the theory about the legitimate use of geographical indication trademark.Due to the weak distinctiveness of geographical indication trademark,its exclusive right and prohibition right are limited to some extent,and it is easy to be used by unauthorized subjects in practice.In order to balance the interests of all parties,laws should protect the legitimate use of geographical indication trademark.The fair use of geographical indication trademark is the restriction of rights and the exception of infringement.It mainly includes descriptive use,indicative use and non-commercial use.Its theoretical basis involves the theory of balance of interests,the theory of non-abuse of rights and the theory of good faith.The second part is to sort out the status quo of the legitimate use of trademarks of geographical indication in our country.Through combing through the current situation of relevant legislation and practice,it sums up the problems that the identification standards are inconsistent and the thinking is inconsistent in the recognition process of the legitimate use of trademarks of geographical indication in our country.The third part studies the current situation of protection and fair use recognition of geographical indications and analyzes the beneficial experience which can be applied to our system.The fourth part is the analysis of the recognition of fair use of geographical indication trademarks.In the process of the recognition of fair use of geographical indication trademarks,the same or similar use of place names in geographical indication trademarks should be taken as the prerequisite for recognition,rather than trademark use.On this basis,the subjective state of the user is analyzed,and the product source and product quality elements are judged.Combined with the objective behavior mode of the user and the result elements that make the relevant public seriously confused about the product source and quality,it is comprehensively determined whether the use behavior of the unauthorized user constitutes the legitimate use of the geographical indication trademark.In addition,in the protection of the fair use of geographical indication trademarks,the prior use system is also applicable,and the prior user has the right to the fair use of geographical indication trademarks.There is a close relationship between the successful registration of geographical indication trademarks and the recognition of fair use.For the registration conflict between similar geographical indication trademarks and ordinary trademarks,more attention should be paid to the protection of geographical indication trademarks in order to promote the better development of characteristic products.