Recently, news that a village Party secretary’s online sale of millet was taken down following a legal complaint from Xiaomi Corporation sparked widespread public attention. The incident began when the village official listed locally grown millet—a common cereal grain—on an e-commerce platform using the keyword ‘Xiaomi’ (which translates to ‘millet’ in Chinese) to promote sales and support local farmers. However, Xiaomi’s legal team filed a complaint alleging trademark infringement, leading the platform to remove the product listing.The case quickly went viral online, with many netizens criticizing Xiaomi for conflating the generic agricultural term ‘millet’ with its registered brand name. In fact, ‘xiaomi’ as a food grain has been used in China for thousands of years and belongs to the public domain; it should not be monopolized by any single company. Legal experts noted that using ‘xiaomi’ descriptively to refer to the actual grain does not constitute trademark infringement.Facing public backlash, Xiaomi clarified that the takedown resulted from a misjudgment by a third-party rights-protection agency, not the company’s intention. It has since coordinated the reinstatement of the product listing and issued an apology to the village secretary. The incident has ignited broader discussions about how large corporations should balance brand protection with social responsibility, urging greater caution to avoid ‘over-enforcement’ that harms public sentiment and grassroots livelihoods.
近日，一则‘村支书卖小米被小米公司法务投诉下架’的新闻引发广泛关注。事件起因是某地村支书为帮助村民销售本地种植的小米（一种粮食作物），在电商平台以‘小米’为关键词进行宣传推广。然而，该商品被小米科技有限责任公司（Xiaomi Corporation）的法务部门投诉，理由是涉嫌侵犯其注册商标专用权。平台随后将相关商品下架。此事迅速在网络上发酵，公众普遍对小米公司的做法表示不解甚至批评，认为其混淆了‘小米’作为通用农产品名称与企业品牌之间的界限。事实上，‘小米’作为谷物名称在中国已有数千年历史，属于公共领域词汇，不应被单一企业垄断使用。法律专家指出，在合理描述商品属性的前提下，使用‘小米’一词并不构成商标侵权。面对舆论压力，小米公司随后回应称，投诉系第三方维权机构误判所致，并非公司本意，目前已协调恢复商品上架，并向涉事村支书致歉。这一事件也引发了关于大企业如何平衡品牌保护与社会责任的广泛讨论，提醒企业在维权时应更加审慎，避免‘过度维权’伤害公众情感与基层民生。
原创文章，作者：admin，如若转载，请注明出处：https://avine.cn/2440.html