Recently, the Supreme People's Court made a ruling on the retrial of the civil lawsuit of "Jinsha Gusha Wine" infringing the trademark "Jinsha Huisha Wine", and found that the use of "Jinsha Gusha" by Guizhou Jinsha Andi Doujiu Liquor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Doujiu") and Guizhou Jinsha Ancient Liquor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gujiu") constituted infringement of the trademark "Jinsha Huisha Wine" under Jinsha Liquor. At the same time, the Supreme People's Court held that the trademark of Jinsha Huisha Liquor is still a legal and valid trademark and should be protected in accordance with the law.
In this regard, Jinsha Liquor said that in the future, it will further focus on brand protection, increase rights protection, and effectively safeguard the company's legitimate rights and interests.
Seigen Masamoto
The Supreme People's Court on "Jinsha Huisha Wine"
It shall be protected in accordance with the law
In 1963, Jinsha Huisha Liquor won the title of Guizhou's Eight Famous Liquors, and has been "touched porcelain" by other enterprises many times in the process of going to the whole country, "Jinsha Ancient Sand", "Jinsha Ancient Sauce" and "Jinsha Ancient Cellar" are typical representatives.
Relevant information shows that the No. 6538871 trademark and No. 11743372 trademark currently used by Jinsha Liquor were approved for registration on Class 33 soju and other goods in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
Trademark No. 6538871
Trademark No. 11743372
"Since April 30, 2021, Doujiu and Gujiu have successively applied for registration of Class 33 'Jinsha Gusha' and have been rejected, but during this period, 'Jinsha Gusha Liquor' has been produced and sold. ”
The Shandong Provincial High People's Court made a final judgment and found that the infringement dispute between "Jinsha Huisha Liquor" and "Jinsha Gusha Liquor" was established, and the final judgment required Doujiu and Gujiu to immediately stop the infringement, and at the same time compensate Jinsha Liquor for economic losses and reasonable expenses. After the judgment was rendered, Doujiu and Gujiu filed an application for retrial with the Supreme People's Court, and the retrial ruling made this time is a recognition of the above-mentioned final judgment of the Shandong Provincial High Court.
Courts in many places have found
The use of "Jinsha +" liquor infringes the trademark right of "Jinsha".
As a well-known liquor company, the infringement of "Jinsha Gusha Liquor" is by no means an isolated case. A number of judgments from courts in Guangdong, Henan, Jiangsu and other places show that in addition to "Jinsha Gusha", trademarks or logos such as "Jinsha Ancient Sauce", "Jinsha Ancient Cellar" and "Jinsha Meng" have also been found to be infringing.
Among them, the infringement of "Jinsha Ancient Sauce" and "Jinsha Ancient Cellar", which belong to the same ancient liquor and its affiliated enterprise Doujiu, is relatively serious.
Among them, the "Jinsha Ancient Sauce" logo involved in the case was determined by the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the Guangdong Provincial High Court) to contain the word "Jinsha" in its entirety, and it was basically the same in terms of the visual effect of the font, and was roughly the same in terms of text composition and meaning, but there were only differences in the font, which was easy for the relevant public to misidentify the two and believe that there was a specific connection between the two goods, so it was determined that it was infringing.
In addition, in the Jinsha Gujiao infringement case, the word "Jinsha" contained in "Jinsha Gujiao" is basically the same as the registered trademark "Jinsha" No. 9019800, which constitutes a high degree of similarity and has the potential for market confusion as a whole.
There are many similar judgments, and in the recognition of the trademarks "Jinsha Huisha Wine" and "Jinsha", courts in many places have sided with Jinsha Liquor and supported and recognized it.
The High People's Court of Henan Province and Guangdong Province held that although the word "Jinsha" originated from the place name "Jinsha County", it had a high reputation after the long-term use of Jinsha Liquor and its predecessor company as a trademark on liquor products, and the No. 124667 trademark "Jinsha and Tu" had surpassed the meaning of the place name, and "Jinsha" had a significant identification function of the source of the goods.
The Supreme People's Court held that based on the facts ascertained by the court, it could be proved that "Jinsha Huisha Liquor", as a liquor trademark, had a stable relationship with Jinsha Cellar Liquor Company, and already had a high reputation and influence in the liquor industry, and that the role of "Jinsha Huisha Liquor" as a liquor trademark indicating the source of goods was significantly higher than that of "Jinsha" as a county name and "Huisha" as a general expression of a specific link in liquor making.
It can be seen from this that both in fact and in law, in the liquor industry, "Jinsha" and "Jinsha Huisha Liquor" have formed a high degree of binding with Jinsha Liquor, although other enterprises can be used as place names to mark the place of origin, but can not be used as product identification.
Guizhou liquor industry
There is a long way to go in the protection of intellectual property rights
The liquor industry is an industry closely related to people's livelihood, with the characteristics of a large number of enterprises, many brands, many trademarks, high social attention and great influence.
As a traditional industry, the liquor industry lags significantly behind other industries in terms of intellectual property protection. It is mainly manifested in the weak awareness of the protection of intellectual property rights of liquor, the lack of knowledge of intellectual property rights, the scarcity of talents in intellectual property management, and the insufficient strategic research and application of intellectual property rights.
According to the "Report on Intellectual Property Rights of China's Liquor Industry" issued by the China Wine Association, 86.96% of enterprises have encountered intellectual property infringement, especially trademark infringement, accounting for 78.26%.
Compared with ordinary liquor companies, the leading liquor companies face more serious trademark infringement. In this context, the infringement of "Jinsha Gusha Liquor" is not only a victory for Jinsha Huisha Liquor, but also a positive demonstration for the intellectual property protection of liquor brands.
At present, Guizhou is seizing the major historical opportunities such as making good use of the "New Guofa No. 2" document, giving full play to the advantages of the origin and main production area of sauce-flavored liquor in the Chishui River Basin, and concentrating on building an important liquor production base in the country, but due to various reasons, intellectual property issues, including trademarks, have become the key to restricting Guizhou's liquor industry from becoming bigger and stronger.
In the future, it is expected that more enterprises will actively take up the weapon of law to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and work with relevant departments and industry associations to break down the obstacles in intellectual property rights protection through various legal methods, and continue to promote the high-quality development of Guizhou's liquor industry.