抢注公众人物姓名商标的法律规制研究

Research on the Legal Regulation of Preemptively Registering Public Figures’ Names as Trademarks

摘要: 姓名具有识别功能，因而姓名可以作为商标使用。而公众人物的姓名由于其背后的经济价值，以及已经被社会公众所熟知，于是第三人往往在不经过该公众人物允许的情况下，将其姓名抢先注册为商标。目前我国关于姓名商标抢注问题的法律规定主要有《民法典》中姓名权的规定，以及《商标法》中的“不良影响”条款和“在先权利”条款，这些制度在司法实践中用来解决公众人物姓名商标被抢注的问题仍然不够完备，无法对权利人的利益做到充分保护。因此笔者分析目前法律制度存在的问题，认为首先应当在法律上明确姓名权的保护范围，在适用“不良影响”条款时，应当考虑社会一般公众的认知，在选择适用“在先权利”条款或“不良影响”条款时，应当考虑两个条款的确权要件。

Abstract: Names have recognition function, so they can be used as trademarks. Due to the economic value behind the name of a public figure, some people often register their name as a trademark without the permission of the public figure. At present, the legal provisions on the issue of name and trademark registration in China mainly include the provisions on the right to name in the Civil Code, as well as the “adverse effects” clause and “prior rights” clause in the Trademark Law. However, these legal systems are still not comprehensive enough to solve these problems, and cannot fully protect the interests of the rights holders. Therefore, the author analyzes the problems existing in the current legal system and believes that when regulating the act of registering public figures’ names as trademarks, the scope of protection of the right to name should first be clearly defined in law. When applying the “adverse effects” clause, consideration should be given to the general public’s perception. When choosing to apply the “prior rights” clause or the “adverse effects” clause, the constitutive requirements of the two clauses should be considered.