論商標合理使用之判斷原則

Abstract

合理使用原則在智慧財產權之領域中極為重要，立法者為促進工商發展、科技進步，創設了智慧財產權，允許特定人就其創作之智慧財產擁有獨占之權利。而就本文所探討之商標而言，商標法允許商人就其表彰商品或服務之商標文字或圖形擁有專用之權利，非經商標權人事先同意，不得任意使用。然而，商標權人選用作為商標之文字多數為社會大眾普遍知悉之文字，在商標權人以其做為商標之前，原即具有特定意義，又或是市場上之競爭者為說明商標權人所提供之商品或服務與其自有商品或服務之差異，而不得不使用商標權人之商標，凡此種種，站在維護社會大眾自由使用文字之權利，及兼顧消費者識別商標之利益，均應容許合理使用之存在。然在何種情形下，使用人使用商標權人之商標可謂之合理，而無庸經過商標權人之事前授權？若能有一為行政、司法機關普遍接受之判斷原則，勢必帶給使用人更明確之準則，避免一時不慎被控以侵權之罪名。 美國在商標合理使用領域之探討極為豐富，不論學說、各級法院判決均深值我國引為借鏡，本文亦擬藉由探討美國立法規定及實務判決，並對應我國現階段之立法及實務判決，在比較二者差異後，歸納出適用於我國之合理使用判斷原則，希冀能成為行政或司法機關訂定類似判斷準則之參考。本文第一章為緒論，主要說明本文之研究動機、研究問題及目的，並以文獻探討方式蒐集論文之參考資料，而研究方法則採非實驗設計之研究方式，並輔以訪談驗證論文之結論；第二章為商標之使用，筆者擬於探究商標合理使用前，首先說明美國及國內對商標之使用之定義，以期對合理使用能有更完整之認識；第三章為合理使用之美國法規定，係在探討美國有關合理使用之成文法規定；第四章為美國合理使用之案例研究，包括美國合理使用樣態中屬明文規定之類型，並藉由案例之探討進一步了解法條應用之結果，另外尚包含由美國聯邦法院所創設之合理使用類型及案例分析，如指示性合理使用、模仿諷刺之合理使用、比較性廣告之合理使用及網路時代之新興比較性廣告等均屬美國法院創設之合理使用類型，筆者並將於本章最後一節歸納出法院普遍接受之判斷原則；第五章為國內之合理使用規定，主要係了解國內之立法規定及其沿革，以探討合理使用之構成要件；第六章為國內合理使用之樣態及案例研究，藉由國內法院常見之典型合理使用及指示性合理使用以歸納出司法實務認可之判斷原則；第七章為商標合理使用之判斷原則，乃筆者於探討前述美國及國內之立法及實務後所歸納出之判斷原則，本章尚包括筆者與我國商標之行政主管機關經濟部智慧財產局之行政官員訪談之摘要，該訪談得以驗證歸納出之判斷原則之適當性；第八章為結論。

The fair use doctrine is very important in the field of intellectual property right. For encouraging the development of commerce and technology, the legislator create the law of intellectual property right, such law permits the inventor to obtain the exclusive right for the intellectual property they invented. As for the trademark as discussed in this thesis, the Trademark Law permits the merchant to obtain the right of exclusive use of their trademark which is composed by word or design for indicating the source of their goods or services, no one could use such trademark without the prior consent of the trademark owner. However, most of the words chosen by the trademark owner as trademark are widely known by people due to those words already have specific meanings before been chosen by the trademark owner. Or because the competitor of trademark owner does has a need to use the trademark for comparing the difference between his goods or services and the trademark owner’s, in order to describe his own goods or services. In such cases, to protect the freedom of speech of the public and the interest of consumers to identify the source of trademark, the existence of fair use should be allowed. However, in what condition a use will be deemed fair, and thus without the need to obtain the prior license from the trademark owner? If a set of clear and definite judgment rules could be issued and accepted by the administrative organizations and the judiciary, it would be beneficial for the user to avoid any possible trademark infringement lawsuits.

There are quite huge amount of papers and judgments discussing trademark fair use in U.S., such theory and judgments are very worthwhile for our country to reconsider the cases involving fair use. This thesis intends to discuss U.S. laws and judicial decisions, and try to compare them with the legislation and judgments of our country at the present stage, and summarize the judgment rules suitable to our country. Finally, this thesis intends to be the reference material for our administrative organizations and the judiciary for making the possible judgment rules of fair use. The first chapter of this thesis is the preface, the most part of which is the explanation of the motive, the subject and the purpose of research. The way of research is the so-called non-experiment research, in addition to interview with experts for verifying the result of thesis. The second chapter discusses the use of trademark, explaining the present definition of trademark use in both U.S. and Taiwan before starting to discuss trademark fair use. The third chapter is the legislation of trademark fair use in U.S. The forth chapter is the case study of statutory fair use in the U.S., including the types of trademark fair use which had been stipulated in statutory law. Through the study of prior case law, we can understand the application of statutory law in this type of fair use. This chapter also contains types of fair use invented by U.S. circuit court, including the nominative fair use, parody, comparative fair use and comparative fair use on the Internet. I also summarize the judgment rules for this kind of fair use accepted by the court in the last section of this chapter. The fifth chapter is the legislation of trademark fair use in Taiwan, this chapter explains the history of legislation for trademark fair use, for the purpose of discussing the factors for establishing fair use. The sixth chapter is the cases study and types of trademark fair use in Taiwan. Here I try to summarize the judgment rules for the most common type of trademark fair use in Taiwan, classic and nominative fair use, which had been accepted by the courts. The seventh is the judgment rules for trademark fair use after comparing the legislation and cases of both U.S. and Taiwan, this chapter also contains the record of the interview with the officers of TIPO. Through the interview, the judgment rules could be tested for their application in real cases. The eighth chapter is the conclusion.