信息经济学视角下的商标制度

为克服信息不对称对交易的负面影响,人们采取了信息、信誉与法律三种应对机制。无论何种机制,其作用的充分发挥都有赖于法律制度的有效保障。在信息经济学语境下,商标的功能就在于标示和区分商品出处,在降低信息成本的同时,激励企业保证商品质量,但激励不等于义务,企业并不因为使用商标而承担额外的品质保证义务。而商标法则通过规定商标确权条件、制止混淆和淡化,确保市场上商标的相互区分,为信息与信誉机制的建立和运行提供法律保障。尽管如此,离开相关法律的协同作用,商标法也难以有效运行。这就决定了只有合理划分商标法与相关法律的调整对象与适用边界,才能完善我国商标法乃至整个市场法制。

Trademark Institution in the Perspective of Information Economics

In order to overcome the negative influence of information asymmetry on transactions, people usually adopt three mechanisms: information, reputation and law. During the actual operation process, the above mechanisms are not independent to each other, but interwined together, acting as the prerequisite and supplementary elements. No matter what kind of mechanism, its effective operation needs to be ensured by legal institution. From the perspective of information economics, the fundamental function of a trademark is to establish an identification mechanism in the market through indicating and distinguishing the origin of goods, in another word, to encourage enterprises to maintain the quality of goods while reducing the cost of information transferring and searching. But encouragement means no obligation and an enterprise will not bear extra obligations concerning quality only by adopting a trademark. The goal of trademark law is to ensure trademarks’ distinctiveness by stipulating the prerequisite of a trademark and to prevent trademark confusion and dilution, in turn to guarantee the trademarks’ function. However, without the cooperation of related laws, it is impossible for the trademark institution to function effectively. Only through ensuring the orderly functioning of the related laws can the mechanisms of information, reputation and law can operate effectively. Clarification of the above viewpoint will greatly help to demarcate the object of trademark law and the related laws reasonably and in turn to improve Chinese trademark law and the whole legal system regulating market transaction.