Riding the wind of rebirth

"Sheng Xinglong soy sauce? Is it a brand made by Aunt Zhuangzi and sister-in-law?" Mai Mingchuan was very impressed with that classic advertisement, but he never thought that it would have something to do with Zhou Zhi: "Hehe elbow... There are so many rich relatives in the family... ...but what about this lawsuit?"

"The balsamic vinegar we produce is registered under the brand name of bran vinegar and a registered trademark." Zhou Zhi said, "But the provincial industrial and commercial bureau also said that the word bran vinegar is similar to white wine and koji wine, and it is a collective name for a class of products, so It cannot be used as a trademark of a special manufacturer. We are currently preparing to file an administrative lawsuit, and it is estimated that we will have to go through several rounds in the mediation court.”

"Bran vinegar? Is it balsamic vinegar made from wheat bran? If so, the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau is indeed reasonable." Mai Mingchuan said.

"It has its reasons, but we also have our reasons." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "First of all, our use of this trademark is approved by the national trademark management department. It is special, and there are not many manufacturers who make it, so it has more specificity and less knowledge.”

"It's like white chrysanthemum. When it is mentioned in the Chinese medicine community, it knows that it refers to the medicinal white chrysanthemum in Hangzhou, and does not include various white chrysanthemums in other places."

"Then, is the State Administration for Industry and Commerce also stipulating that white chrysanthemum in traditional Chinese medicine cannot be used as a specific drug name, but must be labeled as 'Hangbaiju'?"

"Well..." Mai Mingchuan couldn't turn the corner for a moment.

"Well, the white horse is not a horse debate, reappeared today." Gu Kailai became interested in this case: "How are you going to fight this lawsuit?"

"Us? Let's fight for it." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Then ask for a price and pay back the money. In fact, it doesn't matter whether we win or lose. We strive to make it known to the whole country."

Mai Mingchuan still didn't react, Gu Kailai already understood, and nodded Zhou Zhi's hand: "You, you..."

Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "The dispute over intellectual property rights will become an issue that will involve a lot of energy in the software industry in the future, so we must firmly erect the fence in this regard."

"I know that when I divided the font recognition module at the beginning, because I used the machine-reading program in the department, when I divided the proportion of property rights, several teachers had opinions on me."

"In fact, everyone has misunderstood. These measures were originally used to guard against villains. We cannot ignore the lower limit of our opponents just because we have requirements for our own moral character. We must use the law to protect our legality. rights and interests."

"Now I fully understand." Mai Mingchuan felt a little ashamed: "We are still trapped in the rigid thinking of the planned economy period and have not escaped. We are still young people today, with a good brain!"

"However, I will be considered a member of the project team from now on. Starting today, all subsequent software development results related to the large font library should belong to the project team and be treated equally with everyone." Zhou Zhi added.

Only then did Li Hongjiang and Director Wang secretly heave a sigh of relief.

Although Zhou Zhi has made great contributions to the project, from the establishment of the project to the sponsorship of countless equipment in several buildings, it is almost all his credit, but if Zhou Zhi does not mention the results and belong to the project team, he will become a member of the team. It is not easy to lead this team if it is a mountain top or an independent kingdom.

Now that Zhou Zhi has such a self-awareness, Mai Mingchuan is very happy: "This is what it should be, then let's all welcome Zhou Zhi back!"

The meeting room suddenly burst into warm applause.

……

"Comrade judge, these are the relevant materials and evidence we submitted for administrative reconsideration." Professor Lu solemnly handed in a thick stack of materials: "The Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce has arbitrarily banned my client's right to use the trademark. , behaviors, and procedures are not in compliance with the rules and regulations, and do not conform to the legal process."

"With regard to the procedural flaws of the provincial bureau of industry and commerce, in the last two mediation meetings, we have presented detailed evidence and received the support of the provincial high court. Today, we would like to discuss the flaws in the provincial bureau's law enforcement basis .”

"We have now made it clear that according to the enforcement notice issued by the provincial bureau, the provincial bureau believes that our registration of the product as 'bran vinegar' violates the relevant provisions of Article 11 of the Trademark Law, that is, only the common name of the product, the graphic model; or only directly expressing the quality, main raw material, function, use, weight, quantity and other features of the commodity; or other signs lacking distinctive features, shall not be registered as a trademark.”

"Unfortunately, the premise of this decree is 'not to be registered as a trademark', and it does not say that trademarks that have been successfully registered are also within the limits of this law."

"For example, Article [-] of the Trademark Law stipulates which signs shall not be used as trademarks. There is also Article [-], which states that geographical names of administrative divisions above the county level or foreign geographical names known to the public shall not be used as trademarks."

"However, registered trademarks using geographical names continue to be valid."

"Therefore, Manzhou's famous brand 'Manzhou Laojiao' and its registered trademark 'Manzhou Brand', under such circumstances, are still protected by the trademark law and can continue to be used."

"Moreover, under the place name 'Manzhou' with obvious administrative divisions above the county level, it is directly named 'Tequ', 'Touqu', 'Erqu', and 'Sanqu' to subdivide the products."

"Let's take a look at these names. Tequ is a very high-quality koji wine, and Touqu is the first batch of distilled koji liquor, and the rest can be deduced by analogy."

"Then, in addition to the city-level place name 'Manzhou', 'Tequ', 'Touqu', 'Erqu', 'Sanqu', do they also belong to 'only directly expressing the quality of the product, the main raw material, Function, purpose, weight, quantity and other features, lacking a distinctive mark'?"

"These names can be protected by law, so should my client's registered trademark also follow the principle of first protection of 'Manzhou Laojiao' and be protected? Instead of arbitrarily stopping it?"

Although it is a mediation court, this case has also attracted the interest of all parties. For example, the legal column of the provincial TV station set up a camera here to record the program.

"My client thinks that the prosecution's point of view is extremely biased." The lawyer hired by the provincial bureau is not a vegetarian: "First of all, we have to understand that Article [-] of the Patent Law prohibits the use of geographical names of administrative divisions above the county level. , and later explained in the regulations the fundamental reasons why registered trademarks using geographical names continue to be valid.”

"In our opinion, the main reason is that before the law was promulgated, there were already a large number of trademark cases named after geographical names in my country, and most of these trademarks were local time-honored brands, and the brands were already well-known to the public. specificity and cognition.”

"We also take Manzhou Laojiao as an example. This trademark was established long before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it won an award at the Panama Exposition. It has long been known to the people of the country and even the world. Therefore, the laws enacted later are not applicable to trace the established facts. .”

"This situation is very different from Saturday Niang Food Co., Ltd.'s registration of 'bran vinegar' as a product trademark."