The lawsuit between China and Japan muji continues: MUJI Japan does not have to lose money, but it has not got back its trademark

Reporter | Zhang Xinyu

Edit | Lou Shuqin

The "trademark war" between Beijing MUJI and Japanese lifestyle brand MUJI (i.e., MUJI, which more consumers are accustomed to writing about), has come to an end another round.

According to the Beijing Court Trial Information Network, on July 13, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court rejected Beijing MUJI's application for a retrial of its dispute with Japan's MUJI for infringement of Shangbaoquan.

Whether MUJI Japan infringes the "MUJI" trademark now owned by Cotton Field in the product categories such as cotton fabrics, towels, bed sheets, pillowcases and quilt covers is the core issue of discussion in the aforementioned legal dispute.

Interface Fashion has previously reported that Muji Japan "lost its trademark" in China, at least when selling products such as bed sheets and towels.

In November 2019, Japan's MUJI parent company, Good products Project Co., Ltd., and its Chinese subsidiary MUJI Shanghai Company lost the "MUJI" trademark infringement dispute with Beijing MUJI. The judgment concerned goods covered by the Class 24 mark, including cotton fabrics, towels, bed linen, pillowcases and quilt covers.

This means that when making tags for cloth, towels, bed sheets, etc., Muji Japan must remove the "MUJI" from "MUJI" and use only "MUJI".

In 2019, Beijing MUJI and its parent company, Cotton Field Company, also filed a lawsuit against MUJI Shanghai Company and other relevant parties, saying that MUJI japan used the same logo as the registered trademark of "MUJI" in the store signboard and the packaging bags and trading documents of the goods, which was an act of using the same trademark on the same goods, which constituted infringement of the trademarks of "MUJI" such as "quilts and towels" registered by it in Class 24, requiring the defendant to stop the infringement and requesting a statement to eliminate the impact. and compensation for losses of 3 million yuan.

According to the first-instance judgment of the Chaoyang People's Court of Beijing Municipality, the court held that the use of the trademark "MUJI" by MUJI Shanghai Company and MUJI Chaoyang Third Branch in the store signboard, shopping receipts and packaging bags was an act of trademark use in the process of sales and services, which was not the same or similar to the goods approved for use by the trademark involved in the case, and did not constitute an infringement of the exclusive right to use the trademark involved in the case, and rejected the litigation claims of Beijing MUJI and Cotton Field Company.

Since then, Beijing Muji has appealed again to apply for a second-instance trial, and after the second-instance trial upheld the original judgment of the first instance, it applied for a retrial. The latest result of the above-mentioned adjudication is that his request for retrial was rejected.

According to the relevant judgment documents, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court held that, according to the facts ascertained by the courts of first and second instance, the trademark "MUJI" was not used on the alleged infringing product "Towel" and "Thin Quilt", and the trademark "MUJI" registered by the parent company of MUJI Shanghai Company was used on the label, which shows that MUJI Shanghai Company and MUJI Chaoyang Third Branch have in fact "achieved reasonable avoidance of the trademark rights involved in the case".

In other words, in fact, to this day, MUJI Japan still cannot use the "MUJI" trademark on cloth, towels, bed sheets and other goods.

MUJI China has previously issued a statement to Interface Fashion on the relevant lawsuits, saying that it will not give up the opportunity to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, in addition to the relevant lawsuits that have been handled, its parent company Liangpin Project has also filed a number of related civil lawsuits, and made administrative reports on the relevant suspected infringing companies and their franchise stores.