Cover News:

Trademark squatting with "Lake Changjin" and "Quan Hongchan" received significant attention. Data on the fight against malicious trademark registrations last year was also mentioned just now. What measures were taken in the previous year to combat malicious trademark squatting and what progress was achieved?

Hu Wenhui:

Thank you for your questions. Mr. Zhang Zhicheng will answer them.

Zhang Zhicheng:

Thank you for your questions. As you mentioned, incidents involving malicious trademark applications received much public attention. The CNIPA has attached great importance to solving the problem and taken multiple measures, such as improving regulations, setting up lexicons as examination guides, dealing with applications by type, and launching special actions, to crack down on trademark squatting and build a market environment featuring good faith. In 2019, we formulated and issued Several Provisions on Regulating Trademark Registration Applications. The regulation stipulates that a bad-faith application for trademark registration shall be rejected and invalidated according to the law and that the applicant shall be given administrative punishment such as warnings and fines based on the circumstances by the market regulatory department at or above the county level at the place where the applicant is located or where the violation occurs.

In early 2021, the CNIPA issued the Special Action Plan for Combating Malicious Trademark Squatting. The plan identified ten acts targeted during the special action, including maliciously squatting the names of public figures, well-known works, or character names with a relatively high reputation. Relevant case clues would be transferred to local intellectual property offices. As Mr. Hu mentioned, the CNIPA combated 482,000 malicious trademark registration applications throughout last year and rejected 1,111 applications involving trademark squatting with names including "Lake Changjin" and "Quan Hongchan." The CNIPA also announced 1,635 registered trademarks invalid and transferred 1,062 clues of cases involving suspected significant adverse consequences and malicious trademark registration to local authorities. Thanks to the measures, a tough position has been adopted across society in cracking down on malicious trademark registration.

In addition, as Ms. Lei mentioned, the CNIPA has intensified efforts in combating malicious squatting by trademark agents. For example, we organized local authorities to investigate 24 cases where trademark agents attempted to snatch buzzwords for the Olympic Games as trademarks maliciously and imposed administrative punishment on 13 cases. For two trademark agents involved in major severe squatting cases, we directly imposed an administrative penalty and stopped their business. In addition, we summoned 13 platform-based trademark agents for talks, guiding them to establish mechanisms for screening malicious trademark squatting and preventing the act and other violations of laws and regulations.

In the near future, the CNIPA will publish some typical cases of malicious trademark squatting on its official website and WeChat account to maintain long-term deterrence and ensure market and legal environments featuring fair competition and good faith for all market entities.

Thank you.