Riding the wind of rebirth

"Saturday Niang Food Company was established in [-]. Although it is developing vigorously, it is still a new company. Its registered 'bran vinegar' as a product trademark will create exclusivity for other products that use the same process and the same raw materials. , it is unfair to the rest of the companies that produce such products.”

"We oppose the defense's point of view." Professor Lu got the note from Zhou Zhi and immediately retorted: "The defense is confusing the facts. The real fact is that although Saturday Niang Foods Co., Ltd. is It is a young company, but its two major products of soy sauce and bran vinegar are all derived from local old brands that have existed for hundreds of years, 'Tongrenhe' and 'Shengxinglong'."

"When the locals mentioned bran vinegar, they were referring specifically to the top-quality balsamic vinegar produced by Sheng Xinglong. Therefore, it also has the basic cognition of the general public and the property that the new law is not suitable for retrospection as proposed by the defense. .”

"At the same time, we also need to inform the judges and defense lawyers that the bran vinegar produced by my client has so far not existed the so-called products using the same process and the same raw materials as identified by the defense. !"

"Prosecution lawyers, please pay attention to your wording." The judge couldn't stand it any longer: "They are all condiments like balsamic vinegar. Can't other manufacturers adopt the production process of bran vinegar from Saturday Niang Food Co., Ltd.? Even if you apply for patent protection, there is a protection period. So you say this is unlikely, right?"

"Comrade judge, you have misunderstood." Professor Lu said with a smile: "It is not because of the patent protection of the production process, but because the local air and hydrological conditions are very unique. The production workshop of the soy sauce and bran vinegar I am involved in is located in Hongshui Xianshi Town by the river, where they have brewed soy sauce and balsamic vinegar since ancient times, has a very special feature, that is, no koji is used, and the raw materials to be fermented only need to be placed in a cool and ventilated fermentation room to let the air The unique fermentation bacteria group adheres to it, and then produces an exceptionally high-quality fermentation raw material."

"What?" The judge was surprised.

The people from the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the defense lawyers were also stunned. This situation is unheard of.

The editor and director of the filming show became interested. This case has become interesting now.

Many people have a misunderstanding of the law, because judging from each case, it is to protect the due interests of the parties, and they understand it as an act of protection for individuals.

In fact, in a larger sense, the law protects a kind of social order. It exists to serve social stability and benignity, and it does not tend to protect individuals.

For example, the simplest example, although the law maintains public order and good customs, if a father and a son compete for the same woman, and finally let the woman change from the son's girlfriend to the son's stepmother, the law will recognize this matter within the scope of the provisions are reasonable and protected.

Although it subverts most people's cognition of "public order and good customs", it is not illegal at all.

In this example, the father-son relationship does not constitute a prohibited condition for the father to pursue his son’s girlfriend, because if it is listed as a prohibited condition, the social regression may exceed the social progress. To formulate provisions based on nature, at the beginning of the formulation, similar "individual cases" were not protected.

Therefore, for some very special cases, the law is actually powerless.

For example, the current discussion on this "bran vinegar" is determined to be single due to its special natural production conditions, so there is no so-called "other enterprises producing similar products", and of course it cannot infringe its interests.

If this is the theory, citing this law to judge that the trademark cannot be used is not valid.

"Comrade judges, comrades from the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and comrades from the defense lawyers." Professor Lu chased after the victory: "We are not a lawsuit today, but a mediation, so we came here with so much evidence. Negotiate a reasonable and feasible solution.”

"My client also made a suggestion, which I think is also useful for reference, that is, for local famous and high-quality local products, we can have trademark, industry and commerce, quality supervision and other departments to jointly launch a concept of 'protection of geographical indications'."

"For example, the famous quality of ham, Xuanwei ham and Jinhua ham, and West Lake Longjing tea. The country should not only protect the independent names of these famous and high-quality local products, but also maintain their particularity and authority, so that they will not be affected by others outside the region. The counterfeiting and impact of the manufacturer."

"The country can set up a group to protect this kind of products, protect these names in the form of trademarks, and then authorize them to meet the conditions. The authority of the law, the authority of the law."

"As a concession, my client has made several demands."

"First, please ask the provincial industrial and commercial bureau to issue a written apology letter to my client for the problems in the law enforcement process. It may not be published in the newspaper or disclosed to the media, but it needs to be stamped with an official seal and handed over to my client for safekeeping."

"Secondly, my client can use the successfully registered 'Bran Vinegar' as a special trademark of 'Protected Geographical Indication Products', and hand over the ownership to the relevant departments, but it needs to have the right to use it, and the 'air natural fermentation process' , as a condition for the authorization of the trademark, it is clarified in the document that in the future, only balsamic vinegar made by air natural fermentation without using koji medicine can use this name."

"Third, in order to cooperate with this way of use, we agree to add the names of administrative divisions below the county level before our own brands."

"Fourth, because my client's product has been put into production and sales, and because the right to use the trademark has affected sales, we can give up the administrative compensation claim against the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, but we also need the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce. Geographical indications protect the new trademarks of products, speed up the handling process, and handle special matters in order to make up for the economic losses caused to my client before."

"If the Provincial Bureau agrees to our mediation conditions, we can discuss the details of the next step in detail."

The judge listened to the ins and outs all morning, and felt that Professor Lu's appeal was reasonable, so he asked, "May I ask the prosecution party, are these few items proposed by Professor Lu an expression of your true wishes?"

"Yes." Miss Xiaojuan'er dressed up today, looking extraordinarily gentle and virtuous: "We are willing to negotiate with comrades from the Provincial Bureau to resolve this issue."

"What about the comrades from the Industry and Commerce Bureau?" the judge asked.

On the opposite side, a middle-aged man in uniform muttered to Zhou Yuanjiang and the lawyer with a serious face, "Our provincial bureau also agrees. Negotiate a solution."

"We have issued a mediation agreement according to this plan? As for more details, you can come down and negotiate later?" The judge also breathed a sigh of relief.