What are the main reasons for conflicts of rights between trademarks and trade names?

Reasons for conflicts of rights between trademarks and trade names

The main reasons for conflicts of rights between trademarks and trade names are as follows:

1. There are similarities in the composition of trademarks and trade names (both can use Chinese characters) and have the same function (both are carriers of goodwill).

A trademark is a sign used by producers and operators on their goods or services to distinguish the source of the goods or services. In short, a trademark is the goods or services The basic function of a logo is to distinguish different goods or services. According to Article 8 of my country’s Trademark Law, “any visible mark that can distinguish the goods of a natural person, legal person or other organization from the goods of others, including words, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional signs and color combinations” , as well as the combination of the above elements, can be applied for registration as a trademark..." It can be seen that the constituent elements of a trademark are quite extensive, and among these elements, characters have become one of the more commonly used constituent elements of trademarks because they have the advantages of clear expression of meaning, good visual effects, and easy recognition and memory.

Trade name is the common name for the font size in the name of the enterprise ③. It is a commodity producer or operator. It is used in order to indicate the characteristics that are different from other commodity producers or operators. A specific name used in commercial transactions. According to Article 7 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Regulations" and Article 9 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Implementation Measures" issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, an enterprise name shall consist of administrative division, trade name, industry, and organizational form in order. Legal , except where otherwise provided by administrative regulations. Since the company name is the code name of the company, and its most basic function is to distinguish other producers or operators, the company name is unique and is not allowed to be the same. Within the same administrative region, the administrative division, industry, and organizational form of the company name components can be the same, but the only thing that is not allowed to be the same is the trade name. It can be seen that the trade name is not only one of the legal components of the enterprise name, but also the most critical core part. Only it has real identification value. Ordinary consumers will only remember the company's trade name, but rarely the complete name of the company. According to Article 8 of the "Enterprise Name Registration Management Implementation Measures": "Enterprise names shall use Chinese characters that comply with national standards, and shall not use Chinese pinyin letters, Arabic numerals...". As part of the company name, the trade name should of course also use Chinese characters. Therefore, from the perspective of the composition of trademarks and trade names, there are obviously more elements that constitute a trademark than those that constitute a trade name. However, the only common component among them is Chinese characters. This means that any trade name that meets the conditions stipulated in the Trademark Law can be used as a trademark after being approved by the Trademark Office.register. Similarly, an enterprise can also turn a registered trademark into its own trade name with the approval of the industrial and commercial administration department. Although trademarks are used to distinguish different goods, and trade names are used to distinguish different companies, since goods are produced by companies, and our country allows some industries to appropriately simplify their names④, the simplified names are mostly trade names. As a result, consumers often associate trademarks with trade names, causing confusion.