"If You Are the One", which was popular in the variety circle, actually fell heavily in Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Jiangsu Satellite TV, a gold medal program, broke the monopoly of Hunan Mango TV on variety shows as soon as it came out, and firmly occupied the top two in the national variety list for many years. Its high popularity also makes this program the first case in China TV industry to be selected as a textbook of Harvard Business School. However, the popularity and achievements can't prevent the second-instance judgment of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court from using the column name of If You Are the One. The final judgment means that from the date of judgment, Grandpa Meng can't announce the beginning of this issue to the audience.

This story is certainly interesting.

Keep? Not _ not _? Mr. Jin Ahuan's road to safeguarding the rights of exclusive right to use registered trademarks

In the first instance of this case, the plaintiff held the No.45 matchmaking agency, matchmaking agency and other designated items? Not _ not _? Mr. Jin Ahuan, who registered the exclusive right to use a trademark, introduced that he applied for registration with reference to the traditional Chinese characters of movie posters in 2009, when the movie "If You Are the One" was being broadcasted. Not _ not _? Trademark. After Mr. Jin obtained the trademark registration certificate on 20 10, he founded the website If You Are the One, claiming to be the first marriage and love chain entity in China. When you quickly start your own business plan and prepare to become a bigger and stronger brand, troubles will follow? What is the reason? The ratings of TV program "If You Are the One" keep rising? .

Teacher Jin from Yongjia, Wenzhou, didn't mention the 500 million yuan title fee that Kans brand smashed for a year if you are the one. On the contrary, what do you think? If you are the one? It has seriously restricted the operation of the brand and the forward development of attracting investment. Does Mr. Kim think angrily? People who don't know the real situation also think that their company is using the reputation of If You Are the One for business activities. In order to protect his legitimate rights and interests, he took up legal weapons? .

Whether Mr. Jin is using the name of "If You Are the One" or not, Mr. Jin's road to safeguarding rights is not smooth. After filing a lawsuit in Nanjing Xuanwu District Court on 20 12, which triggered media follow-up, Mr. Jin quietly withdrew the lawsuit and filed a lawsuit in Shenzhen Nanshan District Court instead. Nanshan court still failed to support the plaintiff. After losing the first trial, Mr. Jin appealed to the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, but in the end, Miracle won the second trial.

Does Jiangsu TV Station constitute infringement of trademark rights?

In the final judgment just made, Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court held that when judging whether the appellee in this case constituted trademark infringement, we should not only consider the TV broadcast form of You Are the One, but also consider the content and purpose of TV programs, so as to objectively judge whether the service categories of the two are the same or similar. Judging from the purpose, content, methods and clients, the TV program "If You Are the One" is all about marriage, blind date and making friends. What is the difference between it and Appellant No.7199523? If you are the one? Services approved on the trademark registration certificate? Make friends, introduce marriage? Similarly, the popularity of the appellee Jiangsu TV Station and the publicity of the program made the relevant public mistakenly think that the use of the registered trademark of the obligee had a wrong understanding and connection with the appellee, resulting in reverse confusion. In this (20 15) No.927 judgment, Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court revoked the civil judgment of the first instance of Nanshan District Court and ordered Jiangsu Radio and Television General Station to stop using immediately? If you are the one? Conduct advertising, registration screening, follow-up services and other acts that infringe on Jin Ahuan's registered trademark.

The judgment of the second instance of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court expresses a seemingly strict formal logic with a series of legal terms. In the simplest terms, there are two key words in the judgment of second instance, confusion and reverse confusion. According to the judicial interpretation and general theory of the Supreme Court, confusion is the premise of trademark infringement. In other words, there is no trademark infringement if consumers don't confuse. Reverse confusion is not as mysterious as it sounds. In fact, it refers to the use of the same or similar trademarks without the permission of the previously registered trademark owner. Because of the success of the brand or market that later used the trademark, consumers mistakenly thought that the trademark belonged to the infringer rather than the trademark registrant. The only difference between reverse confusion and confusion is whether consumers mistake the trademark used by the defendant for the plaintiff's trademark or mistake the plaintiff's registered trademark for the defendant.

Trademarks must be registered in a specific category of goods or services. The designated categories of goods and services can be divided into 45 categories. In general, different categories of identical or similar trademarks can coexist and can be registered independently. Confusion and reverse confusion have the same premise, that is, the trademarks of plaintiff and defendant belong to the same or similar categories. Jiangsu Satellite TV claims that the program "If You Are the One" belongs to the registered trademark 4 1 for entertainment and program production authorized by Huayi Brothers.

The second instance judgment of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court held that "You Are the One" belongs to the 45th registered trademark designated by the plaintiff in the first instance in terms of service purpose, content, method and object? Make friends, introduce marriage? And overthrow the Nanshan District Court? Although the TV program If You Are the One is related to dating, it is still a TV program. The relevant public generally believes that the two programs have no specific connection and are not easy to confuse the public. Do they belong to different kinds of goods (services)? Judgment of first instance.

However, according to the analysis of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, the final judgment was wrong.

Since Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court thinks that the content and purpose of TV programs should be considered when determining the trademark category, it should not think that the program "If You Are the One" belongs to the matchmaking service, but should clearly admit that the purpose of "If You Are the One" is not matchmaking, but to make programs through matchmaking. No matter how enthusiastic the blind date scene of If You Are the One is, the guests are not users of the program. The users of Do Not Disturb are the audience, and the guests are just random performers or props participating in the program. Both the host and the guests are actually performing the same program in * * *. In this sense, they are no different from magicians and assistants.

Mixing the specific content of the program with the service category of the program will produce more strange phenomena, such as the following:

Is "Jianbao" a 35-category auction or for others to sell?

National Geographic, does it belong to the 39th category of travel arrangements?

Does the running man belong to the 4 1 organization education or entertainment competition?

Does the lecture room belong to the 4 1 education category?

Does China on the Tip of the Tongue belong to the 43rd category?

Does "Yangshengtang" belong to 44 medical outpatient service?

Does the legal report belong to the 45th category of legal services?

Military today? What kind does it belong to?

Whether the trademark "If You Are the One" belongs to 45 kinds of matchmaking services, 4/kloc-0 kinds of program production services or even the 38th kind of TV broadcasting services depends on the relevant consumers/users. Only by judging from the habits and cognition of relevant consumers can we make a correct conclusion about the category of business evaluation.

Article 12 of the Interpretation of the Supreme Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Trademark Civil Disputes clearly states that whether goods or services are similar should be comprehensively judged by the general understanding of the relevant public about the goods or services? . Consumers are the final users of trademarks, and the first article of China's Trademark Law also puts the interests of consumers before the interests of producers and operators. If the judge's personal will overrides the consumer's cognition, the judgment must be the opposite. Taking the second-instance judgment of the trademark "If You Are the One" as an example, how can Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court convince those uncles and aunts who have been married for decades that their whole family is not watching the program but participating in the marriage introduction when watching "If You Are the One" on TV?

Mixing entertainment programs with matchmaking services is like a strange mix of coffee and beer. The result of this mashup is a disaster for an excellent program that has been tested by the audience and a tragedy for the application of the trademark law. We may think that we are strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, but we ignore the connivance of cybersquatting and unprincipled expansion of rights to unwarranted boundaries.

The sun rises as usual, even if you register the sun as a trademark.