Ling Zongliang

Abstract: In the juridical settlement of disputes arising from the trademark owner’s repeated authorization of conflicting licensed rights to use the trademark, it is always a challenge to award the ownership of such rights, which is involved with the understanding and application of legal nature and confrontation effect of recordation of trademark license. According to relevant provisions of the newly-revised Trademark Law, making requirements for recordation of trademark license is not only a necessity conducive to the administration by the Trademark Office but also more an approach of publicizing changes of trademark rights. As to the legal force of recordation of trademark license, it is regulated in the newly-revised Trademark Law that: if the trademark license has not been recorded, it cannot be used against other parties; if it has been recorded, it can be used against other parties, that is, the recordation of trademark license has confrontation effect. Specifically speaking, if various licenses have not been recorded, on account of the non-excludability of intellectual property, the measure of coexistence may be adopted, that is: all licensed persons may have the right to use relevant trademarks, and the prior licensed person has no right to require any posterior third party of goodwill to stop using or infringing relevant trademarks. If the posterior license has been recorded, the license obtained by the third party of goodwill may be used against other parties, and the third party of goodwill may has the right to require the prior licensed person to stop using relevant trademarks.