论商标质量的法学定义与法律引导

On the Jurisprudential Definition and Legal Guidance of Trademark Quality

提高知识产权质量已成为我国共识,但知识产权战略规划和理论研究中存在商标质量的定义困境,商标质量与品牌价值、显著性等相邻概念之间的边界也较为模糊。通过借鉴相关品牌理论,从商标的符号结构入手分析可知商标质量能够从技术创新视角进行定义,具体包括商标标志的技术创新质量与商标权的技术创新质量。近年来引发较多争议的“低格调”商标申请往往属于对商标标志质量的异化诠释。相关法律规制则过多地侧重于运用商标法律制度引导整个社会的道德观念,结果超越了现有商标法律制度的规范局限,并且在一定程度上忽视了对商标标志质量的宏观引导。

The idea of improving Chinese IP quality has been widely recognized in China.However,defining the concept of trademark quality seems be a problem in recent national IP strategic planning and academic research.The boundaries between“trademark quality”and neighboring concepts such as“brand value”and“distinctiveness”remain vague.Inspired by brand theories and semiotic research approach,trademark quality could be defined from a technological perspective.It reveals the fact that creativity-perspective trademark quality includes the quality of mark-design and the quality of exclusive right.Those so-called“possibly immoral”trademarks could be interpreted as an alienation interpretation of mark-design quality improvement.Meanwhile,the related practice of legal regulation indirectly places the emphasis on the quality of exclusive rights,which overcome the normative restriction of trademark law and tends to neglect the macro guidance on improvement of mark-design quality.