Ski champion "Gu Ailing" maliciously registered as a trademark
Compiled from The Paper
Case review
On February 8, Chinese athlete Gu Ailing won the gold medal in the women's freestyle skiing big air final at the Beijing Winter Olympics, earning widespread praise and admiration from netizens. However, at the same time, observant netizens discovered that "Gu Ailing" had already been registered as a trademark as early as June 2019, sparking heated discussion online.
Some netizens found in public information that there are 29 trademark applications for "Gu Ailing." Among them, 11 trademarks for "Gu Ailing" filed by a natural person named Zhang in June 2019 have been registered, covering international classes such as education and entertainment, advertising and sales, and cloth and bed sheets. The trademark application processes for "Gu Ailing" filed by other companies and individuals show as "rejected" or "trademark invalid."
Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 32
An application for trademark registration must not harm the existing prior rights of others, nor use unfair means to preemptively register a trademark that others are already using and that has a certain influence.
[1] The author's perspective
Based on the above legal provisions, we know that trademark applicants cannot harm others' existing prior rights. Therefore, it is crucial whether the trademark applicant can provide evidence that the registration was not due to Gu Ailing's fame but for other justifiable reasons. However, judging from the current situation, understanding the three characters "Gu Ailing" from a Chinese semantic perspective has no practical meaning, so it can be inferred that the trademark applicant likely registered it because of Gu Ailing's fame. If this is the case, the trademark registration is related to Gu Ailing herself. If Gu Ailing herself files for trademark invalidation, the China National Intellectual Property Administration will declare the corresponding trademark invalid.
Additionally, another factor to consider is that in 2019, Gu Ailing was not a household champion athlete, so it is understandable that the trademark examiner was unaware of her. Under such circumstances, it is reasonable that the trademark application for "Gu Ailing" was approved. However, any attempt to register the "Gu Ailing" trademark now will certainly not be approved. Moreover, in the "Special Action Plan to Combat Malicious Trademark Preemptive Registration" implemented by the China National Intellectual Property Administration in March 2021, a concentrated campaign was launched to crack down on malicious trademark preemptive registration. According to this plan, such malicious preemptive registration of the "Gu Ailing" trademark is suspected of exploiting the popularity of Olympic champion Gu Ailing, and the relevant applicants may even face corresponding penalties.
