Research On The Legal Regulation Of Trademark Squatting In The Internet Environment

In the Internet environment,the advertising function of trademarks has been continuously strengthened in online sales,and the economic value has become prominent.Since searching keywords is crucial to attracting consumers’ attention,online communication breaks through geographical and media restrictions,and symbols with high popularity may become the target of trademark squatting.For example,the mobile game "Honor of Kings" was squatted on liquor,“ Totay ’ s Youtiao” robbed the popularity of “Today’s Toutiao” to preemptively register on the 43 rd category “Providing catering and accommodation services”,and more dramatically the squatters claimed and prohibited “ Jing Hanqing ”,the popular uploader of Bilibili website,from continuing to use the logo after robbing the trademark.Trademark squatting cause trademark hoarding,reselling for profit,and malicious lawsuits which is repeatedly prohibited.Preemptive registration not only overwhelms the trademark examination authority,but also deviates from the purpose of trademark protection,destroys the order of market competition,and damages public interests.How to further improve the relevant legal system of my country’s regulation of trademark squatting is one of the important issues to promote the development of the socialist market economy.The economic reasons for trademark squatting are obvious,It is the focus of this paper to explore the institutional factors of the repeated prohibition of trademark squatting,and to make suggestions for the improvement of the legal system.This paper firstly organizes and summarizes the characteristics of trademark squatting in the Internet environment,it is believed that the characteristics of the rapidly information on the Internet make the relationship between the popularity of the logo and the distinctiveness of the trademark more and more closely.Once the registration is successful,the specific connection between the trademark and the goods or services can be quickly established.However,trademark squatting has seriously damaged the legislative value of the trademark law,not only causing waste of resources and administrative burden,but more importantly,the application of the new clause prohibiting malicious registration has caused problems of interpretation within the trademark law.Secondly,the paper investigate the current situation of the legal system regulating trademark squatting in my country,and analyze the institutional factors that frequently occur in trademark squatting.Our country mainly adopts the combination of the Trademark Law and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law to regulate trademark squatting,however due to the excessive emphasis on "registration" and insufficient examination of "use" in trademark acquisition,the inherent defects of registration acquisition have not been well overcome in our country’s trademark law;still due to the lack of liability clauses in my country’s Trademark Law to combat trademark squatting,the cost of squatting is unbalanced with the protection of the rights and interests of rights holders;in the application of the prohibition of squatting,there are conflicts of internal provisions of the Trademark Law,generalization of the application of adverse effects clauses,and conflicts of interpretation of Article 32 and the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.Finally,this paper argues that the advantage of trademark service and trade registration is to facilitate the development of trade,but it cannot deviate from the value of trademarks and the essence of use;while strengthening administrative sanctions,a mechanism combining credit punishment and economic incentives should be established;the systematic interpretation of the clauses prohibiting trademark squatting shall be strengthened in practice.