Dahe News Yu video reporter Li Shuai
Recently, the owners of a number of Zhengzhou foot bath shops reported to the Dahe Newspaper Yu video reporter that since the "Xiaoyao Town" breakfast and "meat sandwich steamed bread" snacks were sued for infringement, now it is their turn to wash their feet, and as long as the foot bath shops and foot therapy shops in Zhengzhou have the word "Liangzi" on the front of the door, they will face the alleged infringement, and they have received a court summons, the other party not only requires them to stop using the enterprise name of "Liangzi", but also wants them to compensate for 500,000 yuan of economic losses.
So, what's going on?
They felt that they were operating legally, but they were sued for infringement because of "Liangzi"
Mr. Wang, the owner of the reflecting shop, said that he was a Liangzi foot massage shop opened in New Zhenglong Lake. Not long ago, on November 25, they suddenly received a summons from the Zhengzhou Intermediate People's Court, saying that they had used the names of enterprises, social organizations, and names of others to have a certain influence without authorization, and asked him to go to the court on time for a trial.
"At that time, I was confused, we were legally registered business licenses, and doing business was also legal business, which was infringing." Mr. Wang said that they went to the court for consultation, saw the complaint against them, and learned that a Beijing company called Beijing Tailian Liangzi Health Technology Co., Ltd. had sued them because of the infringement of the word "Liangzi" in the name of their store and the front of the door, demanding that they stop using the name of the enterprise with the word "Liangzi" and compensate the other company for economic losses of 500,000 yuan.
Mr. Wang said that if he had not seen the complaint and notarized materials of the other company suing them, he would not have remembered that on June 16 this year, two people had gone to their store to collect evidence. "In June, I took evidence, did not report me, asked me to stop the infringement, now sue me, directly want compensation, then the name of the Liangzi foot therapy shop registered on my business license is also infringing, why does the registration department want us to register it?"
The other one
"One 500,000, ten is 5 million, Zhengzhou almost has more than a hundred Liangzi foot bath shops, foot therapy shops, then is not more than 50 million, this money is too good to earn." Mr. Li said that he learned through inquiry that if the lawyers of the other company were not busy, more than 100 "Liangzi" foot bath shops and foot therapy shops in Zhengzhou might have been "boiled in one pot", and there were eight or nine stores that were sued by them alone.
In addition, several lawyers who reflected the owner told reporters that they inquired about the infringement case of "Liangzi" in other places, which was a case of infringement by Beijing Tailian Liangzi Health Technology Co., Ltd. suing foreign merchants for infringement, and the other lawyer had proposed to join the defendant infringing merchants, and the franchise fee was set according to the size of the store, starting from a minimum of 60,000 yuan, and there was an annual management fee.
During this period, Mr. Wang and Mr. Li also provided reporters with their business licenses and court summonses, civil complaints, notarial certificates and other materials they received.
The head of the plaintiff company claimed that the company's lawsuit was to defend the brand
The reporter saw through the enterprise inspection APP query that Beijing Tailian Liangzi Health Care Technology Co., Ltd. was established on January 11, 1999, and its trademark information has 302, covering all 45 international classifications. Among them, there are 177 registered trademarks and 52 trademark renewals...
In addition, in the company's judicial case information, there are a total of 142 judicial cases, of which 83.10% of the cases are based on trademark infringement disputes; the same 83.10% of the cases, the company as the plaintiff...
In order to understand the purpose of the lawsuit of Beijing Tailian Liangzi Health Technology Co., Ltd. and why so many trademarks were registered, the reporter contacted Mr. Wang, who was licensed by the company, through the company's official website.
Mr. Wang said that the company wants to maintain the company's brand, wants to join is the infringing merchants to talk to the company, that is the rights of the infringing merchants, willing to accept it, unwilling to accept it is not accepted, that is the two sides to negotiate, there is no final result. Because of trademark infringement and infringement of rights, the company is maintaining the brand, the brand has been chaotic, the market is chaotic, and everyone is hanging. Before the company sues the infringing merchant, there is no law that must negotiate with the infringing merchant.
"Talk to him about what to do, and don't want him to join, he offered to join, then can you talk, negotiate well, talk about it, don't add it if it's not right, the company sued him, didn't want him to join."
As for why so many trademarks were registered, Mr. Wang said that the case was still in the court litigation stage, and the court tried during the litigation period, and they did not accept interviews in this regard.
Business license registration name approval and trademark registration are two systems
The "Liangzi" trademark infringement case is still under trial, and the reporter of Dahe Daily will continue to pay attention to it. However, however, the question raised by the merchant, why did the legally registered name on the business license not find that there was trademark infringement in advance?
The reporter learned from the staff of the relevant departments of Zhengzhou City that the business license registration name approval and trademark registration are two sets of systems and are also managed by two departments. For example, when a merchant registers a business license, their registration department will use the registration system to approve the registered name, as long as there is no "same name and same surname", and it involves the words of well-known brands, etc., they can approve the name and register, they also recognize the registered name, but whether the trademark registration department recognizes it, they are not sure. At present, the word "Liangzi" is not a well-known trademark in their registration system.
The reporter also called the consultation telephone number of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, and the consultation telephone staff said that their trademark office system is to apply for trademarks, and they only recognize registered trademarks. As for whether there is trademark infringement, it ultimately depends on how the court will try it.
So, is it possible for the two systems to be connected and avoid future infringements?
The staff of the relevant departments of Zhengzhou City told reporters that because there are too many registered trademark names and words, their registration system only lists well-known well-known brand names as prohibited name registration. If the two systems are connected, it is likely that the registration system will not be available. "Imagine if you want to register a company, every name may be suspected of trademark infringement, then there is no way to register."
Source: Dahe News Editor: Liu Rui