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The “Double Eleven” shopping festival is underway, but in China there is still a dispute over the ownership of the “Double Eleven” trademark. For this brand, Alibaba and JD.com, the two Chinese e-commerce platforms, have filed a lawsuit.
Initially, “Double Eleven” came from “Singles Day” started by Chinese students. Subsequently, Taobao responded for the first time to this Singles Day and organized the “Double Eleven” event. Then gradually other Chinese e-commerce platforms followed suit and then spread. In addition, Alibaba also registered the “Double Eleven” word mark in China in 2011, and applied for the registration of the “Double Eleven” word mark in 35 kinds of advertising and other services, and its registration was approved on December 28, 2012.
In 2018, JD.com believed that Alibaba Group did not actually use the “Double Eleven” trademark in the three years from November 2015 to November 2018, so it filed an application to cancel the trademark with the State Office of Intellectual property.
As a result, the review and review of the State Intellectual Property Office concluded that the Alibaba Group had used the “Double Eleven” trademark in “advertising”; display of products in the media for retail purposes; sales for third party services. The trademark registration must be maintained in the service, however, it was not used in many services such as “Business management assistance; Commercial information”, so the trademark registration of the rest of the services was canceled.
This response left both JD.com and Ali Group unsatisfied. JD.com refused to keep the registration part and Alibaba Group dissatisfied with the deregistration part. Therefore, the two companies filed a complaint with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, requesting the court to order SIPO to make a new decision. .
Therefore, the State Intellectual Property Office of China amounts to “the relatives of the public have changed the victims.” The former head of arbitration has suddenly become the defendant. The following is a compilation of the statements made by the Chinese media in the two trials by JD.com and Ali and the State Intellectual Property Office.
JD: “Double Eleven” is a public language
The State Intellectual Property Office stated that the review decision was made in response to the actual use of the trademark in question raised by JD.com and did not involve disputes over the distinctiveness of the trademark. After the review, the brand in question was used within the specified period, so that the relevant public can know the time of the promotion through the previous use, which played a role in advertising and sales. The defendant’s decision is based on the law and must be upheld.
However, JD.com said that “Double Eleven” is a common expression for the shopping festival on November 11 every year, now not only in the field of e-commerce, but also in various industries such as education and aviation. . The use and participation of the whole society must belong to the category of public language and must not fall under the monopoly of private power.
At the same time, JD.com pointed out that when Alibaba Group held shopping festivals, it was mainly used in conjunction with other trademarks, such as the words “Tmall Double Eleven.” The most common form of use in society is to add company names or trademarks before “Double Eleven” to distinguish the purchase promotion activities of different companies. He believes that the essence of this use is the use of the “Tmall” trademark instead of the “Double Eleven” trademark.
Also, the trademark is “Double Eleven” in full text, but Alibaba Group often uses “Double 11” and “11.11” in its use. This should not be considered as the use of the trademark in question. In 2015 As of 2018, Alibaba Group did not use the trademark involved in the case as a registered trademark, so it should be revoked in accordance with the law.
Ali: I am the founder of “Double Eleven”.
Alibaba Group defends that it is the founder of the “Double Eleven” shopping festival. In 2009, Alibaba Group applied the “Double Eleven” to online promotional activities for the first time. In 2011, he applied for trademark registration and was approved. During the annual promotional activities, Alibaba Group will apply the word “Double Eleven” to the products that participate in promotional activities during advertising, trade promotion agreements, store decorations, etc., so that consumers can distinguish the sources of service and identify promotional products.
Regarding the “Double Eleven” trademark, Alibaba Group stated that it has continuously invested a lot of manpower, material resources and intelligence, and the annual promotion and marketing expenses are huge, which makes the shopping festival so influential . As for the specific ways of using brands, whether in words or numbers, there is no difference between the call and the meaning, the company will use different methods to design in different situations to reflect the beauty and enhance the advertising effect.
Alibaba Group agreed to keep the part of the trademark registration involved in the review decision of the State Intellectual Property Office. For the party that was revoked, Alibaba Group submitted multiple promotional agreements and evidence related to marketing activities to show that it was also about “business management assistance; business” Information “and other services used disputed trademarks.
The State Intellectual Property Office explained that the use of “business management assistance; business information” and other services refers to business information services provided by industrial and commercial companies, and the evidence presented by Ali Group is for promotion between consumers, and there is no The consideration obtained from this is incompatible with the requirements of the registered trademark category, so the defendant decided to cancel the trademark registration of this part of the service that must be maintained.
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