Chapter 983 Mediation
"Saturday Niang Food Company was established in 1991. Although it is booming, it is still a new company. It has registered 'bran vinegar' as a product trademark and will use it for other products. Products with the same process and the same raw materials create exclusivity for the rest of the producers of such products. Enterprise is unfair."
"We object to the defense's point of view." Professor Lu immediately retorted after receiving the note handed over by Zhou Zhi: "The defense is confusing the facts. , the real fact is that although Saturday Niang Food Co., Ltd. is a young company, its two major categories of soy sauce and bran vinegar The products are all derived from local time-honored brands that have existed for hundreds of years, 'Tongrenhe' and 'Shengxinglong'."
"When locals mention bran vinegar, they refer specifically to the top-quality fragrance produced by Shengxinglong. Vinegar, therefore, it also possesses the basic understanding of the broad masses that Manzhou Laojiao has proposed by the defense, as well as the fact that the new law does not Attributes suitable for traceability.”
“At the same time, we also want to inform the judge and the defense lawyer that so far, the bran vinegar produced by my client does not use the same process as identified by the defense. Products with the same raw materials, related companies that produce such products! ”
"Prosecution lawyer, please pay attention to your wording." The judge couldn't stand it anymore: "They are all condiments such as balsamic vinegar. Can't other manufacturers adopt the production process of bran vinegar produced by Saturday Niang Food Co., Ltd.? Even if you apply for patent protection, there is still a protection period. So you said this is unlikely?"
"Comrade Judge, you have misunderstood," Professor Lu said with a smile. The reason why the production process is protected by patents is because The local air and hydrological conditions are very unique. My client’s soy sauce and bran vinegar production workshop is located in Xianshi Town on the bank of the Hongshui River. They have been brewing soy sauce and balsamic vinegar since ancient times. They have a very special feature, that is, they do not use koji. , you only need to place the raw materials to be fermented in a cool and ventilated fermentation room, so that the unique fermentation bacteria in the air can adhere to them, thereby producing fermented raw materials of extremely high quality."
"What? "The judge was surprised.
The people from the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the defense lawyer were also numb. This situation is unheard of.
The director of the filming show became interested, and this case has become interesting now.
Many people have a misunderstanding of the law, because judging from each case, it is to protect the due interests of the parties, and they understand it as an act of protecting individuals.
In fact, in a larger sense, the law protects a social order. Its existence is to serve social stability and benignity. It does not tend to protect individuals.
For example, the simplest example is that although the law upholds public order and good customs, if a father and a son compete for the same woman, and eventually the woman changes from the son's girlfriend to the son's stepmother, the law is within the scope of the provisions. , will consider this matter to be reasonable and protect it.
Although it subverts most people's understanding of "public order and good customs", it is not illegal at all.
In this example, the father-son relationship does not constitute a prohibited condition for the father to pursue his son’s girlfriend, because if it is listed as a prohibited condition, the social regression may exceed social progress. The makers of the law The provisions are mainly formulated based on the broad sense of society. When they were first formulated, similar "individual cases" were not protected.
Therefore, for some very special cases, the law is actually powerless.
For example, the current discussion about "bran vinegar", due to its special natural production conditions, determines that it is single, so there is no so-called "other companies producing similar products", of course it is cannot infringe upon its interests.
If this theory is used, it will not be valid to cite this law to determine that the trademark cannot be used.
“Comrade judges, comrades from the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, and comrades from the defense lawyer.” Professor Lu pursued the victory: “We are not litigating today, but mediating. Therefore, the fundamental purpose of coming here with so much evidence is not for Instead of going to court, we should negotiate a reasonable and feasible solution. "My client also put forward a suggestion, which I think is also informative, that is, for local famous and high-quality local specialties, we can have the trademark, industry and commerce, quality supervision and other departments jointly launch a 'geographical indication protection' Concept.”
"For example, the famous and high-quality hams, Xuanwei ham and Jinhua ham, and West Lake Longjing tea. The state should not only protect the independent names of these famous and high-quality local products, but also maintain their uniqueness and authority so that they are not affected by other products outside the region. Counterfeiting and impact of manufacturers ”
“The country can set up a protection for this. The product group protects these names in the form of trademarks, and then authorizes them to be used by manufacturers that meet the conditions. In this way, it not only avoids the absurd one-size-fits-all approach, but also greatly maintains the authority of the trademark and the authority of the law. Sex."
"As a concession, my client made several demands."
"First, please ask the Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce to issue a written apology letter to my client for the problems in the law enforcement process. It does not need to be published in newspapers or disclosed to the media, but it needs to be stamped with an official seal and handed over to my client for safekeeping. ”
“Second, my client can use the ‘bran vinegar’ that has been successfully registered as a ‘geographical indication’ Protect the product's special trademark and hand over the ownership to the relevant departments, but you need to have the right to use it, and specify the 'air natural fermentation process' as the authorization condition of the trademark in the document. In the future, only without using koji medicine and using air This name can only be used for balsamic vinegar made by natural fermentation process.”
"Third, in order to match this usage, we agree to add the name of the administrative division below the county level before our own brand."
"Fourth, because my client's products have been put into production and sales , sales were previously affected by trademark use rights , we can give up the administrative compensation claim against the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau, but we also need the Provincial Industrial and Commercial Bureau to speed up the process and deal with special cases before we use the new place name and geographical indication to protect the new trademark of the product, so as to make up for it as much as possible. The economic losses of the parties.”
< br>“If the Provincial Bureau agrees to our mediation conditions, we can discuss the next details in detail.”
The judge listened to the whole morning and felt that Professor Lu’s request was reasonable, so he asked: "May I ask the prosecution party, Professor Lu? Are these suggestions your true expression of wishes? "
"Yes." Sister Xiao Juaner dressed up specially today and looked particularly gentle and virtuous: "We are willing to cooperate with the provincial bureau. Comrades, please negotiate carefully and resolve this issue.”
"What about the comrades from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau?" the judge asked.
A middle-aged man in uniform and the serious-looking Zhou Yuanjiang and the lawyer on the opposite side muttered a few words in a loud voice: "Our provincial bureau also agrees that on the basis of these articles, we will work with Saturday Mother The comrades of the Food Co., Ltd. negotiate a solution. "
"We will issue a mediation agreement according to this plan? As for more details, you can come down and negotiate later?" The judge also breathed a sigh of relief.
(End of this chapter)