On April 19, the Shanghai Minhang District People's Court (hereinafter referred to as the "Shanghai Minhang Court") publicly heard one and pronounced judgments on four intellectual property cases, covering trademark infringement disputes and unfair competition disputes, involving well-known brands such as Schneider, Samsung, Lenovo, Descente and the TV series "Canglan Jue".
The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter learned from the Shanghai Minhang Court that the basic facts and adjudication results of the four intellectual property cases are as follows.
Comparison of the authenticity of "Schneider" brand electrical components The pictures in this article are all courtesy of Shanghai Minhang Court
Labeled "Schneider" on electrical components and sold, one person was sentenced
In the case of Xiong's counterfeiting of registered trademarks, the defendant Xiong purchased unbranded switches, circuit breakers and other electrical components from others since July 2021, and then produced counterfeit "Schneider" brand electrical components by labeling them and sold them through Taobao online stores. As of the time of the case, the public prosecution accused the defendant Xiong of illegally producing and selling counterfeit electrical components totaling more than 310,000 yuan.
The Shanghai Minhang Court held that the defendant Xiong, without the permission of the registered trademark owner, used a trademark identical to his registered trademark on the same kind of goods, and the circumstances were particularly serious, and his behavior constituted the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark. The court sentenced the defendant Xiong to one year and ten months imprisonment, suspended for one year and ten months, and fined 80,000 yuan, confiscated the stolen goods and illegal gains seized in the case, and continued to recover the illegal gains that were not withdrawn.
The seized counterfeit "Samsung" and "Lenovo" registered trademark logos
More than 16,000 pieces of "Samsung" and "Lenovo" logos were commissioned to be manufactured, and one person was sentenced
In the case of Gao's crime of illegally manufacturing registered trademark logos, the defendant Gao, in the course of engaging in second-hand computer and server memory renovation and sales activities, had others produce and print more than 16,000 pieces of various registered trademark logos such as "Samsung" and "Lenovo" by sending pictures of trademark logos to others without obtaining the authorization and permission of the registered trademark owner. The public prosecution indicted the defendant for the crime of illegally manufacturing a registered trademark logo.
The Shanghai Minhang Court held that the defendant Gao had manufactured the registered trademark logo of another person without authorization, and the circumstances were serious, and his conduct constituted the crime of illegally manufacturing the registered trademark logo. The court sentenced the defendant Gao to eight months in prison, suspended for one year, and fined 30,000 yuan, and confiscated the stolen goods and illegal gains seized in the case, and continued to recover the illegal gains that were not withdrawn.
Counterfeit Descente clothing seized
For infringing on the trademark rights of Descente, the two were sentenced and liable for civil compensation
In the infringement of Descente's trademark rights, the plaintiff is the licensee of the exclusive use of Descente's related registered trademarks in China, and the Descente series of brands have cooperated with many countries and sports teams in ice and snow sports, and have a high reputation in the ice and snow sportswear industry. Defendants Wang and Luan clearly knew that the Descente brand clothing sold by others was counterfeit, but still purchased and sold them to outsiders through WeChat for profit, with a sales amount of more than 470,000 yuan, and were sentenced to three years and three months in prison and suspended sentences respectively for the crime of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks. The plaintiff is now claiming civil liability against the two defendants on the grounds of infringement of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark.
The Shanghai Minhang Court held that the sale of goods infringing the exclusive right to use a registered trademark by the two defendants constituted an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark. Although the two defendants had returned the stolen goods in the prior criminal case, they had already received criminal leniency for this reason, and were not exempted from civil liability for compensation. The court comprehensively considered the reputation of the right and trademark, the nature, duration and consequences of the infringement, the degree of subjective fault of the two defendants, and the reasonable expenses of rights protection, and determined that the two defendants should compensate the plaintiff with 100,000 yuan.
The defendant launched a photography package of the same name of "Canglan Jue" on an online platform without authorization
launched the photography package of the same name of "Canglan Jue" without authorization, and the two defendants were sentenced to pay 300,000 yuan
"Canglan Jue" is a well-known TV series, and the plaintiff is one of the producers of "Canglan Jue", and enjoys the copyright including the right of information network transmission. The plaintiff found that the two defendants (the photography company) launched a photography service package with the same name without permission, providing costumes, makeup, shapes, props, and scenes that were the same or similar to the characters in the play, and also prominently used well-known elements in the play when promoting them on platforms such as Dianping.com, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat. The plaintiff argued that the two defendants launched a photography service package with the same name during the popular broadcast period of "Canglan Jue", but they did not take the initiative to avoid it knowing the popularity of the work, and even claimed to be an original theme, which constituted unfair competition.
The Shanghai Minhang Court held that, as a cultural commodity, TV dramas are the objects of consumption in the field of public spiritual life and have commodity attributes, and in this case, the name of the TV series "Canglan Jue" constitutes a "trade name with a certain degree of influence" in the sense of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Elements such as the character images and scene names of the TV dramas involved in the case have strong distinctiveness, and when used in combination, they have a high degree of relevance and stable correspondence with the TV dramas involved in the case, and can achieve the role of identifying the source of goods and services, and are commercial marks with a certain impact. The use by the two defendants of the same or similar elements as the TV series in question on multiple platforms for the purpose of promoting photography packages during the popular period of the TV drama in question will cause confusion or misidentification among the relevant public and constitute unfair competition. In the end, the court ordered the two defendants to jointly compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses of $300,000.