According to Article 16, Paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Copyright Act, whether there is an infringement on the right of attribution, determination must be made based on a comprehensive consideration of the purpose and method of use, and commonly accepted practices, among other factors. However, the function of a trademark is to identify the goods or services. The purpose of applying for trademark registration is to acquire the exclusive right to use the trademark, instead of identifying the creator of the trademark. The common practices of general trademark use do not contain an indication of the creator.

The related regulations or application documents of trademark registration do not require identification of the trademark creator, either. Besides, there’s little likelihood that the general public would confuse the proprietor of a registered trademark with the creator of a trademark. The defendant applied for a trademark registration with the artistic work at issue. However, the application documents did not contain the plaintiff’s name. The plaintiff claims that the public would be misled to believe the defendant as the creator of the trademark, and therefore, it would infringe a moral right (the right of attribution) of the plaintiff. However, the court does not agree with the plaintiff.

Moral Rights