Restaurants and the catering trade shall not use place names which are famous for delicacies as their trademarks
E020130X2 Mar. 2002（E31）
The Supreme Administrative Court recently adjudicated that restaurants and the catering trade shall not use place names which are famous for delicacies as their trademarks, otherwise, such trademarks are likely to mislead the public into believing the service quality and business places of the restaurants.
The Intellectual Property Office (“IPO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs strictly checks on place names to avoid consumers from misidentifying the source and quality of a product. The other day a restaurant applied for registration of a service mark “大北京” (Great Beijing), but such application was dismissed by the IPO. The IPO’s reason is that the name used by the restaurant, i.e. “大北京” is likely to mislead the public into believing the service nature, quality or business place. The restaurant was dissatisfied with the IPO’s decision and filed an administrative remedy thereafter.
The judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court indicates that Beijing cooked food is one of the five famous cooked food of China. If the restaurant uses “大北京” as its service mark, such mark may enable the public to misinterpret it. As the IPO’s disagreement for the restaurant to register this name conformed with the spirit of the Trademark Law, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the administrative proceeding filed by the restaurant based on the aforementioned reason.
Source: Economic Daily News 01/30/2002
