Abstract
This article looks at how religious signs are increasingly used in trade and how misappropriation can be harmful to the identity and preservation of religious cultures. Research has shown that trademark rules can be used to help prevent such issues occurring in trade. Some religious entities have also taken trademark strategies to safeguard their religious signs. Considering that religious signs are generally regarded as common patrimony, a balanced system is more beneficial to both the public and trademark proprietors. This research delves into the theory that the trademark system should ensure that the non-commercial use of religious signs used for historical, cultural and social purposes, remains in the public domain. By analyzing China’s practice of protecting religious signs, this article finds that despite the success of certain religious entities in safeguarding religious trademarks, their approach is not necessarily feasible for wide application. The article suggests that the government should do more to protect religious signs by using trademark rules under which any signs detrimental to religious identity, value or culture should be refused for registration and prohibited from use. Also, in certain cases, social organizations and individuals should be entitled and encouraged to participate in the protection of religious signs.
Highlights
Religious signs, an important part of religious culture, are increasingly used in trade
People who cared about Shaolin culture argued that misappropriation of religious signs would cause misunderstanding about religious beliefs and be harmful to the preservation of religious knowledge (Anonymous 2007)
Since religious signs are common patrimony within the society and an important part of religious culture, it is necessary for the whole society to respect, preserve and protect them
Summary
An important part of religious culture, are increasingly used in trade. There are many more Christian believers in Zhejiang Province than in Yunnan Province and Jiangxi Province (Guai and Gao 2016) This implies that religious culture exerts different influence on the population of different regions. This article examines the justification for registering or refusing to register religious signs as trademarks and studies the challenges with respect to trademark protection of religious signs, asking whether China’s practice of protecting religious signs has achieved the anticipated objectives. This context will be viewed in three parts.
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