Brief of the case:

Recently, Unitalen represented Beijing Normal University in the second instance and retrial of the case of review on cancellation of the trademark "JINGSHI". The Supreme People's Court ruled to uphold the second instance judgment (that is, to maintain the valid registration of the disputed trademark "JINGSHI" in "Legal services"). Thereby Unitalen client won the final judgment.

The 3-year non-use cancellation case of the trademark "JINGSHI" is quite tortuous: the Trademark Office maintained the registration; the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) cancelled the registration; the Beijing Intellectual Property Court upheld the TRAB's ruling in the first instance; the Beijing High People's Court revoked the first instance judgment, determined that the evidence of use of the trademark "JINGSHI" was sufficient to prove that it has been commercially applied in "Legal services" truly and effectively, and maintained the registration of the trademark "JINGSHI"; and the third party appealed to the Supreme People's Court for a retrial due to dissatisfaction with the second instance judgment, and the appeal was rejected.

Typical significance:

In this case, on the one hand, the attorney conducted an in-depth investigation on the evolution of the name of "Legal services" from the 7th edition of the Similar Goods and Services Table published when the disputed trademark was applied for registration to the currently effective 11th edition of the Table, and consolidated the fact that "Legal research" is a specific term of "Legal services" from the aspects of service purpose, content, manner, and object, etc., to prevent the interests of the trademark registrant from being harmed due to changes in the Table. On the other hand, the attorney demonstrated, from the perspective of the Civil Code, the validity of a license contract with dissolving conditions and the use that does not violate the will of the trademark holder.