公共健康视域下商标使用限制措施的法律争议——以烟草平装措施为例

Legal Disputes about Trademark Use Restriction in Perspective of Public Health——Exampled by Tobacco Plain Packaging

随着全球贸易自由化及国际经济一体化的深入发展,烟草、酒精和肥胖食品等有害于公共健康的商品更易在全球市场上流通。大量消费该类商品引发的非传染性疾病引起了国际社会对全球公共健康情势的关注,为此国际社会提出了新的全球健康治理理论并付诸实践,即在各种法律规范中制定公共健康政策目标并建立有关公共健康保护的例外规则,以实现对危害公共健康的产品流通进行严格控制。其中,许多国家通过立法推行烟草平装法案对烟草产品的消费特别是对烟草商标的使用进行限制。此种立法实践引发了公共健康治理与商标权保护之间的法律争议——公共健康能否成为对商标权进行限制的理由?对商标权进行何种程度上的限制才能实现公共健康利益与商标权人利益之间的平衡?这些都是亟待解决的问题。

The in-depth development of global trade liberalization and International Economic Integration offers great access for commodities which may jeopardize public health to the market of the other country. Non-communicable diseases caused by mass consumption of the commodities such as tobacco products,alcohol beverage and fat diet have drawn great attention to the global public health situation in international community. Therefor,new theories of global health governance,such as setting public health as a policy objective and establishing limitation and exception system in the law,have been proposed and put into practice. Especially some countries have passed the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act which is characterized by strict restrictions on tobacco trademark use.This legislation practice ignites legal controversy between public health governance and trademark protection—whether there is a justification of the trademark use limitation for public health protection,and to what extend the restrictions on trademark right should be made so as to realize the balancing of interests between public health and trademark right.