商标注册所依赖的商标使用研究——从TRIPS第15条第3款谈起

注册和使用是两种取得商标权的方式,TRIPS第15条第3款提供了一种使商标注册依赖商标使用的可能,这种可能的价值在于在坚持使用取得商标权的同时,尽量吸收注册制度的有益元素。英国和德国承认使用和注册都能取得商标权,但商标注册并不依赖商标使用,法国商标权只能通过注册取得,而商标使用却并不是注册的条件。美国联邦商标注册制度是TRIPS第15条第3款所提出的可能性的典型代表,它坚持商标使用产生商标权,发挥商标注册所具有的宣示商标权的作用,而且通过将注册申请视为"建设性使用"而使注册对商标权的归属有所影响。美国联邦商标注册所依赖的商标使用,通过成文法和司法案例来进行解读,成文法在司法审判中得以解释和细化,司法审判中形成的新规则又及时为成文法规所吸收,从而使成文法规得以不断发展,这对于我国如何完善立法是很好的榜样。

Trademark Use Required by Trademark Registration:From the Perspective of Article 15.3 of TRIPS

In general,registration and use are two paralled ways to obtain trademark right. Article 15. 3 of TRIPS gives a possible way to make trademark registration depend on trademark use. Its value lies in absorbing the beneficial elements of registration system at the same time of insisting on use as trademark right origin. In Britain and Germany,both use and registration produce trademark right,but their registrations do not depend on trademark use. In France,only registration produces trademark right,but trademark use is not a condition of registration. The American federal registration is a typical representative of article 15. 3 of TRIPS. It insists that use is the origin of trademark right,and registration plays a role of declaration of trademark right. Furthermore,treating registration application as constructive use makes registration affect the ownership of trademark right to a certain extent. The trademark use depended by registration in the American federal registration system,is explained by the written law and judicial case. Written law is explained and refined in judicial case,and the new rules produced in judicial case are absorb by the written law in time to make written law more prefect. Therefore it is a good model to how to improve the legislation in China.