The hottest northeast fragrant rice packaging bag

Dongbeixiang rice packaging bag caused trademark infringement dispute

prosecution: the rice packaging bag is suspected of infringement. Nanning longrun company, established in 1997, mainly deals in grain, oil and food. The company has registered the "dongbeixiang" text trademark, and the goods approved to use the trademark include rice, which is valid from September 28, 1999 to September 27, 2009. Since January, 2002, longrun company has licensed one or two rice enterprises in Nanning to use the registered trademark of "dongbeixiang" on the packaging bags of rice. On February 21, 2006, with the approval of the State Trademark Office, longrun transferred the registered trademark of "dongbeixiang" to yongluda company. In December, 2005, longrun company found bagged rice with the outer package of "northeast fragrant rice" for sale in likelong supermarket in Nanning. According to the investigation, these rice were produced by Shenyang Longdi company. Longdi company is an enterprise engaged in the development, production and deep processing of food and grain products. The bagged rice bags processed by the company are printed with five art characters "northeast fragrant rice", the font of which is slightly larger, and the top of which is marked with the trademark "Longdi". Longrun company believes that Longdi company is suspected of violating their exclusive right to the registered trademark of "dongbeixiang". Since then, longrun company has successively found the sale of bagged rice suspected of infringement in Hainan, Hubei, Liaoning and other provinces. On February 14th, 2006, longrun company sued Longdi company and Nanning Kangmai company (owner of likelong supermarket), which sold "northeast fragrant rice", to Nanning intermediate people's court, asking Longdi company to stop producing, selling and publicizing "northeast fragrant rice" and compensate for the loss of 3million yuan; Nanning Kangmai company stopped selling "northeast fragrant rice". First instance: after the trial of infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark, the intermediate people's court held that Longdi company used the words "dongbeixiang rice" on the packaging bag of its rice goods and the registered trademark "Longdi" at the same time. The use of the Chinese character "dongbeixiang" on the packaging bag should be used as a trade name, not as a trademark. The Court pointed out that according to the current national rice hygiene standards and industry habits, "fragrant rice" is not the general name of the commodity. Longdi company marked the rice as "late japonica rice" in the column of "raw materials" on the back of the packaging bag, which also showed that the company knew that "fragrant rice" was not the general name of a class of rice, and Longdi company knew that "dongbeixiang" was a registered trademark of others, The use of the word "northeast fragrant rice" does not mean the connection between the commodity and the origin. Therefore, the use of the registered trademark "dongbeixiang" of longrun by Longdi company does not constitute a reasonable use. The intermediate people's court also held that the trademark of "dongbeixiang" registered by longrun company can be used for "rice" goods after approval, and Longdi company also uses the word "dongbeixiang" on rice packaging, so it belongs to the behavior of using the same kind of goods. The trade name "dongbeixiang rice" of Longdi company includes the registered trademark "dongbeixiang" of longrun company. The two are similar, which is easy for consumers to mistakenly believe that it is a product produced by the same company. Therefore, Longdi company infringed the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of longrun company. However, the court held that since longrun company was no longer the exclusive owner of the trademark of "dongbeixiang", it had no right to claim rights for the infringement of Longdi company after February 21, 2006, so longrun company required Longdi company to stop producing, selling and advertising "dongbeixiang rice" and Kangmai company to stop selling "dongbeixiang rice" without legal basis. Some corresponding experimental data were obtained and not supported. Therefore, the intermediate people's Court of first instance ruled that Longdi company should compensate longrun company for its economic losses of 150000 yuan; Compensate the reasonable expenses of 6500 yuan paid by longrun company to stop the infringement of Longdi company. Appeal: reasonable use does not constitute infringement. Longdi company appealed against the first instance judgment and believed that the judgment that "fragrant rice" was not the general name of the commodity was a factual error. Longdi company printed the words "northeast fragrant rice" on the product packaging bag in order to tell consumers the name and origin of the product in good faith and truthfully, that is, the fragrant rice produced in Northeast China, rather than ordinary rice. The font of "dongbeixiang rice" used by Longdi company is an art word, which is obviously different from the three parallel boldface words of the "dongbeixiang" trademark. Among them, the word "Xiang" is significantly larger than other words, which emphasizes the product characteristics and attributes. In the combination of words, it is not the juxtaposition of the three words of dongbeixiang, but the characteristics of rice behind the decoration, which will not make consumers feel that the rice is a "dongbeibeixiang" brand. From the whole layout of the packaging bag, Immediately above the words "northeast fragrant rice", the registered trademark "Longdi" and the R mark of Longdi company are prominently marked. The name of the factory is marked on 20% of the page below, which can visually read out and control the gas flow through the air of the box to be (5000 ± 500) l/min. Longdi Food Co., Ltd. and its address, postal code and fax, So that consumers can know with general attention that it is the authentic northeast fragrant rice produced by Longdi company in Shenyang, Northeast China, which will not make consumers misunderstand it. Longdi company believes that the packaging patterns of the four items of the company's rice product series are basically the same, and it is not just the packaging bag of "dongbeixiang rice" that is made separately. Therefore, Longdi company emphasizes that its products are produced in Northeast China, and it does not take the "dongbeixiang" commercial mark to mislead consumers at all, which is a kind and reasonable use. Final appeal: the judgment of first instance was revoked and the lawsuit request was rejected. After the trial, the higher people's Court of the autonomous region held that the word "Dongbei" registered by longrun company is the general abbreviation of Northeast China, and "Xiang" is also a general descriptive word. Longrun company cannot excessively monopolize the exclusive right of general and public words in the trademark, and has no right to prevent others from using the words "Dongbei" and "Xiang" normally. The high court believes that Longdi company uses "dongbeixiang rice" as its product name. Although the pronunciation includes the pronunciation of the registered trademark "dongbeixiang" of longrun company, from the font point of view, Longdi company's "dongbeixiang rice" is a red art font, which is different from the black font "dongbeixiang" of longrun company; In terms of the arrangement and combination of words, the four words "northeast rice" in "northeast fragrant rice" of Longdi company are of the same size and font, while the font of "fragrant" is slightly different from the other four words, and the font is slightly larger. Therefore, from the way of using the trade name, Longdi company did not highlight the use of "dongbeixiang", but described its product as fragrant rice produced in Northeast China as a whole. The three words "dongbeixiang" contained in its trade name are different from and similar to "dongbeixiang" in the registered trademark of longrun company. It can be determined that Longdi company uses its trade name normally. The high court held that Longdi company submitted relevant national standards to prove that the "fragrant rice" used in its commodity name belongs to the general name. According to China's "agricultural industry standard - Fragrant Rice", fragrant rice is a kind of rice that contains aromatic substances and its fragrance intensity exceeds the recognition threshold of human fragrance. It can escape or emit sensitive fragrance during cooking or raw cooking and tasting ". Fragrant rice varieties are divided into four categories, japonica fragrant rice is one of them. Longdi company objectively and truthfully stated its products from the perspective of origin, raw materials and characteristics of raw materials, and emphatically described that the characteristics of its products were fragrant rice rather than ordinary rice, and it did not deliberately use others' registered trademarks for unfair competition. Longrun company has no right to prevent others from normal use of the common names and public vocabulary contained in its trademarks. Based on the above reasons, the high court finally determined that the trade name of "northeast fragrant rice" used by Longdi company was a fair use trademark and did not infringe the registered trademark of longrun company. A few days ago, the higher people's Court of the autonomous region ruled to revoke the judgment of first instance and rejected the claim of longrun company. The reasonable use of others' trademarks does not belong to infringement □ Li Pinyu's trademark is a sign used by producers or operators to highlight their products or services and distinguish them from the sources of other products or services. After the trademarks of producers or operators are registered by the state, they obtain the exclusive right to use registered trademarks, enjoy the right to use registered trademarks on approved goods or services and prohibit others from infringing their exclusive right to use trademarks. However, the exclusive right to use registered trademarks is not absolute. According to the provisions of Article 1 of China's trademark law, the significance and function of the establishment of the trademark system is not only to promote producers and operators to ensure the quality of goods and services, protect the interests of consumers, producers and operators, but also to maintain market integrity, fair competition and promote the development of market economy. Therefore, the exercise of trademark rights by trademark owners should not unreasonably restrict the legitimate rights of others, hinder the normal circulation of goods, and damage social and public interests, that is, the obligee cannot prevent the rational use of trademarks on the grounds of infringement of trademark rights. Article 49 of the regulations for the implementation of the Trademark Law of China stipulates: "the exclusive holder of a registered trademark has no right to prohibit others from using the general name, graphics, model of the commodity contained in the registered trademark, or directly indicating the quality, main raw materials, functional uses, weight, quantity and other characteristics of the commodity, or containing place names." The reasonable use of others' trademarks does not belong to trademark infringement. The reasonable use of trademarks refers to the narrative use of the registered trademarks of others in their own goods or services in good faith. The judgment criteria of this reasonable use mainly include: first, it should use the public vocabulary in others' trademarks. These words have generally recognized meanings in daily life, and the already advanced enterprise management system and humanistic enterprise culture complement each other and become social public wealth, which is widely used. When expressing their original meanings, they are irreplaceable. Secondly, the scope of reasonable use should be the name and address of the commodity, and describe the attributes of the commodity or service, especially the quality, purpose, geographical source, type, value and date of provision of the commodity or service. Thirdly, the purpose of use is to make a realistic statement to consumers and give consumers some consumption guidance. Instead of deliberately highlighting the same or similar parts with others' trademarks, let consumers think that the goods are registered trademarks, or that there is a certain connection with the registered trademarks. If the same or similar parts of the trade name and the registered trademark are prominently and significantly exaggerated, it is intended to cause consumers' misunderstanding. Finally, the user is subjectively goodwill, in line with the principles of good faith and fairness

reprinted from: Legal Express

at that time, New York will completely ban the use of PS plastics