Guanshengyuan brand was founded in 19 18, and began to produce moon cakes in 1934. Founder Xian Guansheng invested in more than 20 enterprises all over the country, covering Shanghai, Wuhan, Kunming, Chongqing, Xi 'an, Tianjin and other places. After liberation, these enterprises were nationalized, and enterprises scattered all over the country operated independently. Originally, there were no related enterprises in operation, but after the incident, they hurt each other. After the incident, Shanghai and other places were wronged by Guanshengyuan, and most media believed that it was caused by historical reasons. However, historical reasons are only one of the important links, but they are not the whole problem, let alone the root of the problem. From the perspective of intellectual property law, the current Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Name Registration is the crux of the problem. A spokesman for Shanghai Guanshengyuan Group once said that there are hundreds of enterprises using the brand name of Guanshengyuan, and only about 10 of them are related to Xian's family, and they are independent of each other. There is a question worth thinking about. How can the Guanshengyuan Group, which has nothing to do with Xian's family, enjoy the name Guanshengyuan? This actually involves the knowledge of intellectual property rights about font size.

The font size refers to the trade name, which refers to the core content of the company name, the symbol of the company's personality specialization, and the only content in the company name that can be independently selected by the parties. A trade name should consist of two or more Chinese characters or minority languages. According to China's "Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Name Registration", the name of a manufacturer consists of four parts: the name of the administrative division, the name (trade name), the industry to which it belongs and the organization form. Take Nanjing Guanshengyuan as an example. Nanjing is divided into districts, Guanshengyuan is the font size, food is the industry, and limited company is the organizational form. The only distinguishing word that can really work in a place is the font size. In this case, it refers to the word "Guanshengyuan", because the other three elements in the enterprise name cannot enjoy exclusive functions. However, Article 6 of the Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Name Registration stipulates that the enterprise name shall not be the same as the registered peer name within the jurisdiction of the registration authority. To a certain extent, this allows enterprises in different places to register and engage in production under the same name. At present, domestic enterprise name registration is divided into four levels, namely, county level, prefecture level, provincial level and national level. Industrial and commercial departments at all levels are allowed to register without duplicate names within their jurisdiction. In this way, from a national perspective, the coexistence of famous enterprises is inevitable. For example, there is no Guansheng Garden in Chengdu, and the registration authority in Chengdu can register whether there is one in Shanghai or not. The root cause of the "Huadu Incident" in Guangdong a few years ago is exactly the same as this incident, which is the product of the inconsistency between the current enterprise name registration regulations in China and the spirit of equal competition in the market economy. Under the condition of market economy, it is impossible for goods to be sold only in the jurisdiction of the registration authority, so that the products of enterprises with the same name in the market will inevitably lead to confusion and mistaken purchase by consumers. There is only one Haier in China, and he has branches in many parts of the country, but Haier always has only one unified business entity, and different Haier production enterprises belong to the same family. Why don't many consumers in the country regard many enterprises with the same name as a family? In the United States, Germany and other countries, the registration of enterprise names is national rather than local, and its purpose is to avoid unfair competition caused by the same name. China's existing enterprise name registration management system encourages unfair competition in business. Why do so many enterprises that have nothing to do with Xian Guansheng's initial establishment use this name? Most of them just want to cling to the old brand "Guanshengyuan" and survive with the reputation of the strong under their own incompetence. After China's entry into WTO, Chinese enterprises are facing more severe competition. We should see the shortcomings of the current enterprise registration management system and the side that is not conducive to fair competition of enterprises. It is not comprehensive to analyze the Guanshengyuan incident only on the quality issue, and it is not comprehensive to attribute the causes of the enterprises with the same name to history, which fails to grasp the root of the problem.

Second, the report did not pay enough attention to the negative effects.

Guanshengyuan in Nanjing has nothing to do with Guanshengyuan in Shanghai, and the vast number of consumers did not know it from the related reports of Guanshengyuan incident at the beginning, but learned it from the reports that Guanshengyuan with the same name was called injustice later. This can't help but make people reflect on a question. At first, did the reporter realize that if Nanjing Guanshengyuan was not distinguished from other Guanshengyuan, it would potentially harm the enterprises with the same name? After the report, the majority of sellers and consumers regard Nanjing Guanshengyuan and Shanghai Guanshengyuan as a family. Besides the reason of the same name, should the reporter distinguish them? If the report itself does not distinguish between the two, it is natural for readers to put them together for evaluation. Among the four elements of manufacturer's name, the font size plays a difficult role in identifying the other three elements. Wahaha, for example, has its own enterprises in Hangzhou, Shandong and Chongqing, which are cross-regional. The key to distinguish products from different manufacturers lies in grasping the distinctive part of the enterprise name-the font size, which is also the reason why consumers do not distinguish different manufacturers by the place names of "Nanjing" and "Shanghai". As a result, after the report of Nanjing Guanshengyuan comes out, it will inevitably hurt enterprises with the same name.

A few years ago, the products of an internationally famous American beverage company had quality problems in France, which were reported by the global media one after another, but it did not lead to the shrinking of the global market of its products. Although the production of this company's branch in Europe was adversely affected, it did not affect all enterprises in the world. On the contrary, the moon cake incident in Nanjing this time has affected not only the enterprises with the same name, but also all the colleagues in the country. After the exposure of Guanshengyuan incident in Nanjing, it will definitely have a certain negative impact on peers, but people don't want to see it. Suppose that even though Guanshengyuan in Nanjing is the same as Guanshengyuan in Shanghai, Wuhan and Tianjin at present, is there any reason for our report to have such a negative impact? Can't such negative effects be avoided as much as possible? The product quality of manufacturers located in different regions cannot be exactly the same, so attention should be paid to prevent readers from generalizing. If the media realize this, they should warn the audience in the report that the quality problem of one product in Nanjing Guanshengyuan does not mean that there is a problem with the quality of moon cakes of all manufacturers, and Guanshengyuan in Nanjing has no direct relationship with other Guanshengyuan manufacturers. If a report doesn't notice this, people will regard all Guanshengyuan as a family after reading the report. When the media reveals the truth, it is also linking others to some extent. It is based on this that Shanghai Guanshengyuan sued a newspaper. Legal news at home and abroad is very cautious in reporting the object with the same name, and always adds more attributives before the name, so as to avoid being confused with other people with the same name in the region involved, damaging the reputation of others and being sued by the parties concerned. Our journalist didn't pay much attention to this when reporting the product quality of the same name enterprise. This also reflects that our journalists are not strong enough in their awareness of legal protection while exposing problems.

Three, did not notice the problems of Guanshengyuan enterprise itself.

At present, the problem of the same font size in China can not be completely solved by the existing laws. However, under the circumstance that the existing legal norms are not scientific enough, as an enterprise, it should try to avoid passivity and seek initiative in its operation. Although it is difficult to solve the problem of font size for a while, if we know something about the related intellectual property rights in enterprise operation, the situation may be different. After the incident, Shanghai Guanshengyuan once said that Guanshengyuan registered the Guanshengyuan brand for cakes, but the Guanshengyuan brand was first registered by Wuhan Guanshengyuan for moon cakes. Therefore, Guanshengyuan now uses the "Sheng" brand to make moon cakes. In addition, after the incident, Shanghai Guanshengyuan also warned consumers in some media that their mooncakes used the trademark of "Sheng", and its purpose was nothing more than to draw a clear line between their mooncakes and those of Nanjing Guanshengyuan. If the current Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Name Registration makes it difficult for consumers to draw a clear line between enterprises with the same name, are there any other ways and means? The current trademark system can make up for this deficiency to a great extent. The brand name is a sign that producers and operators distinguish each other. Consumers choose products from different manufacturers by distinguishing operators, while trademarks are used to distinguish different producers and distributors. After the Nanjing Guanshengyuan incident, consumers regard different Guanshengyuan as one, which shows that consumers mainly rely on the identification of font size to buy goods, and trademarks play a negligible role in distinguishing. As can be seen from the relevant reports, Guanshengyuan in Shanghai has long been deeply influenced by enterprises with the same name. Why not try to distinguish the products of other Guanshengyuan manufacturers through the trademark of "Sheng" earlier? In the report, the media mostly sympathizes with the enterprises affected by the collective punishment, which is appropriate, but they do not pay enough attention to the protection of intellectual property rights and avoid confusion in their own operations.

News reports have the function of public opinion supervision, and the exposure of the Nanjing Guanshengyuan incident is generally a good thing, and this kind of report itself should be protected by law. However, the report itself is to expose the problem, not to enlarge it. If reporting the problems of an enterprise leads to the damage of the whole industry, it can't be said that it is a successful report anyway. However, this report has created such a reality, and individual media have become defendants in this incident. Any revealing report itself has a negative effect, especially in the economic field, which directly involves the economic interests of related peers. When the Nanjing Guanshengyuan reported that there was a lot of fluctuation among Chinese people, the press did not see the crux of the name registration system, failed to grasp the weakness of enterprises' weak knowledge about intellectual property rights, and failed to lead the problem deeper. Intellectual property plays an important role in the world economy and trade. After China's entry into the WTO, China enterprises must learn to use the relevant rules of intellectual property to protect themselves. Perhaps it is a good thing that the intellectual property problems exposed in the Guanshengyuan incident, which not only let us see some problems existing in the current system, but also let the press see their own shortcomings in this respect and see the great influence of intellectual property rights on a country's economy. It is a good thing for the press to experience this lesson before China's entry into WTO in the long run.

I'm from the Law Department of Zhejiang University. I'd like to have a try. I wonder how the analysis went.