As agents forBeijing Jujiang Culture Development Co. Ltd., senior partner Li Jingchuan fromTahota Beijing office and his team took part in the formal court trial for a trademarkadministrative case in which the plaintiff Mr. Ye sued the Trademark Review andAdjudication Board of State Administration for Industry and Commerce andBeijing Jujiang Culture Development Co. Ltd.

It was saidthat the plaintiff Mr. Ye applied to Trademark Bureaufor registration of a 43rd type of trademark named “YUQUAN” and his application was approved in 2014.In September, 2015, Beijing Jujiang Culture Development Co. Ltd., which is theeconomy company of a famous  musical group named “Yu Quan”, was authorized by “YuQuan” group to ask the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to announce thetrade mark as invalid. In October, 2015, the Trademark Review and AdjudicationBoard sentenced the trade mark to be invalid. Mr. Ye appealed againstthe sentence and thus litigated in Beijing Intellectual Property Court.

“Yu Quan” groupis a national famous musical group consisting of Chen Yufan (original name is ChenTao) and HuHaiquan. Since their debut in 1998, “Yu Quan” group have published manybest-selling albums, held a lot of influential big concerts and taken part invarious significant activities including social public welfare activities.They are called “the first group” and “national group” in the field of popmusic in Mainland China. “Yu Quan” has formed an only correspondence with ChenYufan and Hu Haiquan, is familiar to related public and enjoys a highreputation in Mainland China. Obviously, with an evil tension of looking forconnection with the group, the plaintiff Mr. Ye has taken advantage of “Yu Quan”group’s influence in public so as to raise the profile of his goodsor services, which violates “Yu Quan” group’s prior legal interests.

During thecourt trial, the court found the focus of this case was whether Mr. Ye’s  registration application for a controversialtrademark was against the 32nd rule of Trademark Law and thus violated “YuQuan” group’s prior legal interests. The plaintiff claimed that the TrademarkReview and Adjudication Board failed to send invalid application and relatedmaterials to him, which was procedural illegality; the sentence that histrademark was invalid due to “Yu Quan” group’s prior legal interests was a lawapplication mistake; the controversial trademark had a legal and reasonablesource. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board defended that trademarkreview and adjudication proceedings were legal and suitable; the controversialtrademark consisting of “羽泉”and its phonetic alphabet “YUQUAN” is the same with “Yu Quan” groupboth in characters and phonics, which could not be regarded as a coincidence,violated “Yu Quan” group’s prior legal interests and thus should be announcedto be invalid. Jujiang company agreed with the Trademark Review andAdjudication Board’s opinions. Moreover, it was obviously malicious of Mr. Yeto apply for a controversial trademark, which was against credit and fairness,and that his claim that his trademark was based on his daughter’s name and “Quancheng”,another name for her living place Jinan, was far-fetched and thus should not beadopted.

In recentyears, trademark administrative cases have always taken the lion's share of intellectualproperty cases and disputes about whether individual names, stage names and “merchandising rights”are prior rights are spring up. With the resolution of “Jordan” trademark administrativedispute in the Supreme Court last year and the implementation of Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several IssuesConcerning Trials of Administrative Cases Involving the Grantand Confirmation of Trademark Rights this year, trademarkadministrative cases are expanding protection range of prior rightsand crackdown on malicious registration and controversial trademarks arestrengthened. This has a far-reaching significance in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizensand keeping a fair and justice market competition order. (Thanks to thephoto of “Yu Quan” group attached in this paper from Beijing Jujiang CultureDevelopment Co. Ltd.)