"Untasting" Trademark Rights Protection

Juewei Food Co., Ltd., the parent company of "Juewei Duck Neck", was established in 2005. Its trademark "Juewei" was registered on 29 types of food in 2009 and was recognized as a well-known trademark by the Trademark Office in 2010.

Later, due to the discovery in the business, some businesses used the word "taste" in their signboards, which was suspected of infringing trademark rights. Therefore, Juewei Food Co., Ltd. filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against a number of businesses. Judging from the results of the lawsuit, many of the cases finally reached a compensation settlement agreement.

However, in the case of suing "Wuhe County Weizheng Fragrant snack bar" for using "Juewei Liangpi" on its shop sign, Juewei Food Co., Ltd. lost the lawsuit. Let's take a look at the specific situation!

Juewei Food Co., Ltd. believes that the prominent use of the "Juewei" logo on its shop signs and the "Juewei" registered trademark of Juewei Company constitute the same trademark on similar goods or services, which is easy to cause confusion and misunderstanding by consumers. Infringement of the exclusive right of the trademark of Juewei Company, should bear the corresponding legal liability.

The court of first instance held that in this case, if "Juewei Liangpi" is defined as a service name, the nature should be a restaurant or restaurant, and its trademark registration category belongs to category 43, and Juewei Company does not enjoy the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of this category.

If "Juewei Liangpi" is defined as a commodity, according to the "Similar Commodities and Services Division Table", the commodities approved for use by the registered trademark of Juewei Company are Class 29, while the Liangpi and noodles operated by Weizheng Xiang snack bar are Class 30, and the two are not the same commodity.

At the same time, the relevant public generally do not think that there is a specific connection between food such as salted duck, dead poultry and pork and food such as cold skin and noodles, thus causing confusion, so they are not similar commodities.

According to the first paragraph of Article 59 of the the People's Republic of China Trademark Law, the general name, graphics, and model of the product contained in the registered trademark, or directly indicate the quality, main raw materials, functions, uses, weight, and quantity of the product. And other specific, or the name of the place contained, the owner of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark has no right to prohibit others from using it properly.

After searching the entry "unique taste" by Baidu, the Chinese word was interpreted as "wonderful taste, unique taste, this taste is unique". Huang Tingjian of the Northern Song Dynasty said in his poems: Who can win the same taste, only Lao Du Donglou's poems. It can be seen that the word "taste" itself is a description of the quality of food, has its historical origin, is a common vocabulary of the public, as a trademark itself is not prominent.

The Weizheng Xiang snack bar uses the words "taste-free" on its shop sign and door, which is a description of the quality of its goods. It belongs to legitimate use. Subjectively, there is no intention to attach the registered trademark of the company, and the holder of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark has no right to prohibit it.

Therefore, the court does not support the lawsuit request of Juewei Company that Weizhengxiang snack bar infringes its exclusive right to use the words "Juewei Liangpi" on shop signs, commodity packaging, etc.

The second instance of the Bengbu Intermediate people's Court held that, first of all, Weizheng Xiang snack bar is an individual industrial and commercial household, and its business scope is catering service, which does not belong to the same or similar goods and services as the relevant contents in the service scope approved by the trademark of Juewei Company.

Secondly, "Juewei" is not a fabricated word. Baidu Encyclopedia has the meaning of "wonderful taste". The text size and font used in the signboard "Juewei Liangpi" of Weizheng Xiang snack bar are exactly the same, which is obviously different from the word "Juewei" registered in the trademark of Juewei Company. The word "Juewei" is not used separately and prominently, and "Juewei" is not a significant identification part.

In addition, Weizheng Xiang snack bar is located in Chengguan Town, Wuhe County, Anhui Province. According to the general attention standard of the relevant public, the "tasteless cold skin" as the shop sign is not easy to cause consumers to confuse the source of the service.

According to the evidence in the case, the court of first instance found that Weizheng Xiang snack bar did not infringe on the trademark rights of Juewei company, and the appeal reason of Juewei company could not be established, and the court did not support it.

Therefore, on December 15, 2021, the Bengbu Intermediate People's Court made a final judgment of "rejecting the appeal and upholding the original judgment.

Both individual businesses and enterprises should improve their awareness of trademark protection. While registering trademarks in time, they should also do a good job of trademark monitoring to protect their legitimate rights and interests.