DIRECTORY OF WELL-KNOWN TRADEMARKS PUBLISHED BY THE IPO

03/01/2009

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Protection for well-known trademarks is expressly provided in the Trademark Act, the Fair Trade Act and the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy formulated by the Taiwan Network Information Center.  Whether or not a trademark is well-known should be determined by the competent authorities or the court in charge of trademark disputes.  In order to assist in such determination and to potentially serve as proof of a well-known trademark, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) compiled and published in February 2009 the Directory of Well-known Trademarks and Case Analysis, which includes trademarks that were confirmed to be well-known by the IPO, the courts, the Fair Trade Commission or Domain Name Dispute Resolution Providers between 2003 and 2008, including 3,559 well-known trademark cases.  The IPO will from time to time review the relevant cases and update the Directory.

     

The Directory includes many trademarks owned by domestic and foreign companies, including "天仁" (pronounced "Tien-Ren") owned by Ten Ren Tea Co., Ltd., "少林SHAOLIN" owned by Songshan Shaolin Temple in China, "" owned by Sanrio Co., Ltd., "DAIKIN" owned by Daikin Industry Co., "" owned by Louis Vuitton Malletier and "3M" owned by 3M Company.

     

The Directory will not replace the materials that should be provided by the owner of a well-known trademark to prove the well-known status of the trademark concerned in Taiwan in a trademark dispute case.  It is, therefore, suggested that the owner of a well-known trademark still provides adequate evidential materials depending on the circumstances of each case.  As a trademark dispute case is costly and time-consuming, the owner of a well-known trademark is strongly suggested to register the trademark for the desired goods or services in Taiwan as early as possible in order to prevent others from using or registering an identical or a similar trademark for the same or similar goods or services.