By Rongwei Cai and Yuping Wang
The legal term of "well-known trademark" first appeared in the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ("Paris Convention"), which sets forth the principles for granting special protection to well-known trademarks.
Paris Convention
does not specify measures for protection of well-known trademarks or their recognition procedures, leaving room for each signatory country to decide how it wishes to address these matters. Most countries do not process applications for recognition of well-known trademarks unless owners of such trademarks have demonstrated a need for such recognition, and most countries do not have a separate or independent application procedure for recognition of well-known trademarks.
