“Well-known trademarks” means the trademarks widely known by the relevant public in China.
“Relevant public” include the consumers related to certain kind of commodities or services indicated by a trademark, manufacturers of the aforesaid commodities or other operators providing relevant services, and the sellers and relevant people involved in marketing channels.The following materials may be taken as evidentiary materials proving the compliance with paragraph 1, Article 14 of the Trademark Law.
(1) Materials proving the extent of knowledge of the trademark by the relevant public.
(2) Materials proving the duration of use of the trademark, such as the materials involving the history and scope of the use and registration of the trademark. If the trademark is unregistered, the materials proving that its duration of use is not less than five years shall be submitted. If the trademark is registered, the materials proving that has been registered for not less than three years, or has been continually used for not less than five years shall be provided.
(3) Materials proving the duration, extent and geographic scope of any publicity work of the trademark, such as the materials on the manners of advertising and sales promotion activities, geographic scope, types of publicity media and the quantity of advertisements in the recent three years.
(4) Materials proving that the trademark has been protected as a well-known one in China, or in any other country or region.
(5) Other evidentiary materials proving that the trademark is well-known, such as the materials on the sales revenue, market share, net profits, tax amount and sales territory of the principal commodities using this trademark in the recent three years.
For the purpose of the preceding paragraph, “three years” or “five years” means three years or five years before the date of application for the registration of a trademark against which an objection is raised, or the date on which the trademark registration application on the request for the declaration of invalidation is filed, and three years or five years before the request for the protection of a well-known trademark is filed in the investigation and handling of a case on a trademark- related violation of law.The trademark office and the trademark review committee shall, when determining a well-known trademark, comprehensively consider all factors listed in paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Trademark Law and Article 9 of these Provisions, but a precondition shall not be set to require the trademark to satisfy all the factors.
When the trademark office and the trademark review committee determine a well-known trademark, if the verification of relevant information by the local administrative department for industry and commerce is required, the relevant local administrative department for industry and commerce shall provide assistance.Where the trademark office determines the constitution of a well-known trademark after examining the materials on the determination of a well-known trademark submitted by the administrative department for industry and commerce of a province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government), it shall give an official reply to the administrative department for industry and commerce of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government) that files the request.
The administrative department for industry and commerce that dockets the case shall handle the case in accordance with law within 60 days after the trademark office gives an official reply on the determination, and send a copy of the written decision on administrative penalty to the local administrative department for industry and commerce of the province (autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government), which shall report the case handling information and send the duplicate of the written decision on administrative penalty to the trademark office within 30 days as of the receipt of the copy of the written decision on administrative penalty.In the course of trademark registration examination, handling of trademark-related disputes or the investigation and handling of a trademark-related violation of law by the administrative department for industry and commerce, when a party requests the protection of a well-known trademark in accordance with Article 13 of the Trademark Law, the party may provide records that this trademark has been protected as a well-known one in China.
Where the protection scope of a well-known trademark upon request is almost the same as that of the case in which the trademark has already been protected as a well-known one, and both parties raise no objection to the fact that the trademark is well-known, or any party raises an objection, but the reason for objection and the evidence provided are evidently insufficient to support the objection, the trademark office, the trademark review committee, and the department that accepts the case on the trademark-related violation of law may protect the trademark as a well-known one according to the protection records and in light of relevant evidence.