新《商标法》第四条的适用研究

Research on the Application of Article 4 of the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China

2019年11月1日实施的新《商标法》第4条第1款新增规定:"不以使用为目的的恶意商标注册申请,应当予以驳回"。第4条修改的立法意图主要在于规制商标的恶意申请注册行为,而非仅仅适用于商标囤积行为。否则,该规范的立法价值将大打折扣,无法充分实现该法第4条规定的立法目标。新《商标法》第4条适用的难点在于"恶意"和"不以使用为目的"两个要件的认定及两者之间的关系。"恶意"是指申请人或者代理机构违反真实使用意图,明知或应知其申请商标的行为会造成在先权利人损害而希望或放任损害发生的主观状态。"不以使用为目的"是指商标申请人以攫取不当得利,或者以商标作为竞争工具或掠夺侵占公共资源为目的的行为,其共性均为申请商标不是为了使用。对该法第4条新增规定的适用,"不以使用为目的"是作为"恶意"的定语或者修饰语,两者并非同等要件,无需同时满足;申请人具有"恶意"才是商标申请予以驳回的主要条件。恶意即为违背诚实信用原则,构成商标禁止注册的绝对事由。第4条的修改也吻合了我国新《商标法》为根治商标恶意注册,实现规制关口前移的制度设计安排。

The new Article 4,Paragraph 1,of the New Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China( hereinafter referred to as the Trademark Law),which came into effect on November 1,2019,provides that an application for registration of a malicious trademark that is not intended for use shall be rejected Article 4. The legislative intention of the amendment mainly lies in regulating the act of malicious application for trademark registration,not only applies to the act of trademark hoarding. Otherwise,the legislative value of the norm will be greatly reduced,unable to fully achieve the legislative objectives set out in Article 4 of the law. The difficulty in the application of Article 4 of the New Trademark Law lies in the determination of the two elements of malicious intent and non-use intent and the relationship between them. Malicious intent refers to the subjective state in which the applicant or the agent,in violation of the true intention of use,knowingly or knowingly causes damage to the prior owner of the right and wishes or allows the damage to occur. The purpose of non-use means that the trademark applicants take the unfair profits,or take the trademark as a tool of competition or plundering the public resources for the purpose of behaviors,its common character is that the trademark is not applied for use. For the application of the new provisions in Article 4 of the Act,the purpose of the use of the word " something" is not to be used as the attributive or modifier of the word " something ",which are not the same requirements and need not be met simultaneously;The main condition for the rejection of the trademark application is that the applicant has malicious intent. Malice is the violation of the principle of good faith,which constitutes the absolute cause of Trademark Registration Prohibition. The amendment of the fourth article is also in accordance with the new Trademark Law of our country,which aims at eliminating the malicious registration of trademarks and realizing the system design arrangement of moving forward the regulatory threshold.