商标跨类保护的跨学科解释-中国民商法律网.pdfVIP

Abstract: Trademark cross-class protection is highly disputed, both theoretically and judicially. It can be rationalized, to some extent, by doctrines of uniqueness, quality feedback, market preemption, and free-riding, etc.; but these doctrines have inherent drawbacks. The trademark injury doctrine is the most convincing among them, but it does not give a suffi cient analysis of the injury. Instead, the interdisciplinary approaches of semiotics, psychology and brand science can help to analyze the injury of cross-class use of trademarks; and provide reasonable explanations for cross-class protection. From the semiotic perspective, a trademark is essentially a unity of mark and information of the commodity, while cross-use gives multiple meanings for a trademark. From the psychological perspective, a trademark is essentially the knot in a consumer’s memory, while cross- use enables consumers to develop multiple cognitive networks of a trademark. From the perspective of brand science, the essence of a trademark is its independent symbol value or brand value, while cross-use means tremendous commercial value by brand extension strategy. On the whole, the semiotic and the psychological analysis stress the real injury caused by the cross-use of trademarks; and brand scie