Abstract
As China integrates further into the global economy, closer business connections have been established and developed between China and the rest of the world. As important preparations for market entry, trademarks must be registered in target markets, in accordance with the territoriality prescribed by trademark laws. However, parallel to this market demand, a significant problem of hostile pre-emptive registration of trademark has emerged. On one hand, large number of foreign companies, including some world famous ones, surprisingly found their trademarks had been pre-emptively registered by some Chinese competitors or speculators before launching their marketing in China. On the other hand, some Chinese companies have faced similar problems as well.This dissertation conducts a critical analysis of the protection of unregistered trademarks against hostile pre-emptive registrations and its theoretical implications. This dissertation argues that to create a modern and fair legal system of unregistered trademark protection, it is important to maintain the balance of interests among trademark creators, relevant competitors, and consumers, the balance between the interests of local protection stems from trademark territoriality and the needs of harmonization of international protection due to economic globalization, as well as the balance between administrative supervision and enterprise autonomy. The dissertation suggests further improvement on China’s current trademarks regime, especially the trademark protection regime built around Article 32 of the Trademark Law 2013.
This dissertation is composed of eight chapters. Following Chapter 1 of introduction, in Chapter 2, current dilemma of international protection of unregistered trademarks and its implications are discussed. Reasons for a huge number of hostile pre-emptive registration of trademarks internationally are explored in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 provides the theoretical basis of the protection of unregistered trademarks. Comparative studies are made in Chapter 5, in which protection practices of unregistered trademarks in the US, the EU and China are compared. In Chapter 6, harmonization of protection unregistered trademarks by international treaties is explored. Chapter 7 discusses the further improvement of protection of unregistered trademarks in China. This thesis is concluded in Chapter 8 by a summarized review of topics discussed above.
| Date of Award | 17 Jun 2016 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Wenwei GUAN (Supervisor) |