In the impression of many people, Maotai seems to have been a national wine that should not be ignored. What's the matter with Maotai's public apology recently?
Recently, Guizhou Maotai distillery (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Maotai Group") announced that it applied to withdraw the administrative lawsuit of "National Liquor Maotai" trademark, and apologized to the national trademark review and Adjudication Committee (hereinafter referred to as "commercial judge").
It is understood that as early as a few days ago, Maotai Group filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court on the trademark of "national wine", suing the business judges, asking them to cancel the review decision of not registering and to make a new decision on the application of not registering for review. In addition to suing business judges, Maotai Group also listed 31 organizations and enterprises including Wuliangye, Jiannanchun, Langjiu and Fenjiu as the third party. In this regard, Maotai Group said that the company decided to apply to Beijing Intellectual Property Court for withdrawal of the litigation application submitted recently due to the internal work connection problem, and hereby sincerely apologized to the State Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and all relevant parties.
According to the public information, as early as September 2001, Maotai Group began to apply for the trademark of "National Liquor Maotai", but the application failed. On June 9, 2010, Kweichow Moutai again applied for the trademark of "national liquor Moutai" in the 33rd category of trademark, and obtained the preliminary examination and approval of the registration application on June 26, 2012. However, at the end of 2016, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce made a decision not to register the trademarks and drawings of Maotai Group.
The Trademark Office points out that the application for registration of the challenged trademark violates the provision of "other adverse effects" in Item (8) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of the trademark law. The term "national liquor" in the trademark and plan registration of "national liquor Moutai" applied for registration has the evaluative meaning of "the best liquor in China" and "national liquor". If it is permanently used exclusively by the objected, it is easy to have a negative impact on the fair market competition order. Therefore, the Trademark Office has decided that the trademark of "national liquor Moutai and plan registration" will not be registered.
Maotai Group said that it has been more than ten years since the application for trademark registration of "National Liquor Maotai". We fully respect and are willing to accept the reexamination decision of the State Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.
According to Cai Xuefei, an analyst of liquor industry, Maotai is a de facto national liquor. In practical application, Maotai has widely used the concept of national liquor by using the Pinyin privilege of national liquor trademark. However, the registration of national liquor involves national honor and the interests of the whole Chinese liquor industry, which can only be established if there is a very strong national contribution and industry contribution. Moreover, there is no precedent for national prefix consumer goods.