Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court made a judgment of first instance on the administrative dispute over the invalidation of trademarks between the plaintiff Guangzhou Xuanjing Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xuanjing Company) and the defendant State Intellectual Property Office and the third party Guangzhou Huatai Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huatai Company), rejected the plaintiff's claim, and the third party's invalidation results were further consolidated.

       Lawyer Huang Jibao of Beijing Zhihuan Law Firm participated in the litigation on behalf of the third party Huatai Company, and provided responsive evidence against the facts and reasons proposed by the plaintiff in the administrative litigation, especially the evidence of cooperation between the plaintiff and the third party before the date of trademark application in dispute and the evidence of the popularity of the third party.

      The trademark 24160517 "Huatai" was applied for registration by Xuanjing Company on May 16, 2017, and obtained the exclusive right to use the trademark on June 21, 2018. On the grounds that the two parties had a cooperative relationship before the date of trademark application, knew each other's existence, both parties existed in the same industry, and the behavior of a dazzler company would lead to market confusion, Huatai Company made an invalid declaration on the grounds of "existing cooperative relationship" in Article 15, paragraph 2 of the Trademark Law, and "not damaging the existing prior rights of others" in Article 32 of the Trademark Law. The State Intellectual Property Office ruled that the trademark in dispute should be declared invalid. Xuanjing Company refused to accept the ruling of the State Intellectual Property Office and filed an administrative lawsuit for invalidation.

      The Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that, the focus of the dispute was whether the application for registration of the disputed trademark violated the provisions of the first half of Article 32 of the Trademark Law. The first half of Article 32 of the Trademark Law stipulates that "the application for trademark registration shall not prejudice the existing prior rights of others". The trade name is a symbol used to distinguish different market subjects in the history of the enterprise. If the trade name has been used before the application for registration of the trademark in dispute, and has generated a certain degree of popularity in the services or similar services designated for the use of the trademark in dispute, the registration and use of the trademark in dispute may cause confusion and misunderstanding of the service source among different public, thus causing damage to the interests of the owner of the trade name. Therefore, it has a certain degree of market popularity The trade name in the enterprise name that is known to the relevant public belongs to the prior right protected by Article 32 of the Trademark Law.

      The third party was established on March 24, 2017, and its business scope is software and information technology service industry. Its trade name "Huatai" was used earlier than the date of application for registration of the trademark in dispute. The plaintiff and the third party were both located in Guangzhou, and registered the trademark in dispute with the same trade name of the third party on the software and computer software (recorded) and other goods similar to the third party's "Huatai" trademark. The plaintiff's behavior easily led to the confusion of the relevant consumers about the source of the goods, which has constituted a damage to the third party's prior trade name right. Therefore, the trademark in dispute has constituted the situation in the first half of Article 32 of the Trademark Law. The trademark in dispute shall be declared invalid, and  Xuanjing Company's claim shall be rejected.