Trademark, privacy and data protection: Defending the Public Interest in a post-COVID era

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world dramatically and raised a “public interest crisis” that is exemplified by issues related to China’s trademark and personal data protection. This chapter argues that, in the post-pandemic era, for the public interest risk related to trademark squatting of COVID-related marks in China, the courts should rely less on the morality clause and seek alternative resolutions to achieve the same goal. For the pandemic-related privacy and data issue, this chapter asserts that the priority is to evaluate the impact or risks of our legislative moves and set safeguards accordingly. In a post-pandemic era, it is expected that the need for massive data collection arising from urgent public health matters might come again, and the government should be flexible enough to adjust its data policies while constantly checking their appropriateness with regard to privacy and monopoly concerns.