"Fork" or "copy", "reference" or "appropriation"? "Plagiarism" or "borrowing"? Such a blatant transfer may not be explained simply by "pure coincidence". In the current fiercely competitive market, products with similar names, packaging clashes, and high-imitation appearances frequently appear, and the legal issues behind them are worth paying attention to.
On the occasion of the 24th "April 26 World Intellectual Property Protection Day", on April 25, the Fengtai People's Court held the 29th press conference of "New Cases of the Month" with the title of "Properly Hearing Cases Involving Commercial Labels and Maintaining the Order of Fair Market Competition", introducing the trial situation and characteristics of such cases, releasing typical cases and making judges' prompts. Wang Yanmei, a representative of the Municipal People's Congress, Qi Yan, a representative of the District People's Congress, and Niu Liming, Wang Yan, and Dou Limin, members of the District Political Consultative Conference, were invited to attend the press conference.
According to Yu Kaixin, vice president of the Fourth Civil Trial Division (Intellectual Property Trial Division), in the past three years, the number of unfair competition disputes over packaging and decoration accepted by the court for unauthorized use of others has a certain influence has increased year by year, and the categories of infringing goods involved are diverse, among which liquor has reached more than 80% of the total number of cases involved, and the plaintiffs are widely distributed, most of them are commodity operators with a certain market share and brand awareness in a certain industry or field, and their business scope covers all provinces and cities across the country, and the defendants are manufacturers and sellers of infringing goods. At the same time, since such packaging and decoration often contain the registered trademark of the right holder, the infringer often also uses the same or similar marks as the registered trademark of the right holder, which may also lead to the competition between unfair competition and trademark infringement.
Focusing on the trial of disputes involving "packaging" and "decoration" of branded jewelry, well-known food, and well-known trademarks discovered in trial practice, Judge Yan Jin of the Fourth Civil Trial Division (Intellectual Property Trial Division) reported three typical cases, and introduced in detail the adjudication concepts and applicable adjudication rules upheld by the court in the trial of similar cases. In the case of Company A v. Company B over unfair competition over jewelry modeling, Company A sued the court because it believed that the jewelry involved in the case produced and sold by Company B was similar to the decoration of the classic swan-shaped jewelry with certain influence of Company A, which constituted unfair competition. "The difficulty in the trial of this case lies in determining whether the sale of jewelry by others with the same or similar shape as the jewelry is an act of unfair competition. On the one hand, Company A and Company B were competitors in the same industry, and Company B should have known about the existence and popularity of Company A's classic swan ornaments, but Company B failed to provide evidence to prove that it had a legitimate reason for using the swan shape involved in the case as the decoration of the goods, nor did it fail to prove the legitimate source of the allegedly infringing goods. On the other hand, Company B was established later than the sales time of Company A's classic swan ornaments, and the packaging of the allegedly infringing goods only indicated the enterprise name and address of Company B, and there was no other enterprise information, and there was a large difference in the selling price of the two ornaments. Accordingly, it was determined that in this case, Company B's conduct constituted unfair competition and should bear corresponding legal liability. If Company B has ceased infringement, it shall compensate Company A for its economic losses and reasonable expenses. Yan Jin introduced.
Regarding how the right holder should prevent such legal risks in market activities, Yu Kaixin reminded that the right holder should correctly understand the protected object of commodity packaging and decoration, actively register trademarks or apply for design patents, and should not give illegal enterprises an opportunity to take advantage of it, but also increase brand publicity efforts, gradually accumulate goodwill, and keep the theme of packaging and decoration and the overall image stable. In addition to litigation, you can also choose to file a complaint with the relevant online platform and administrative department, find a mediation organization for mediation, etc., so as to improve the effect of rights protection. At the same time, we should continue to strengthen the study of laws and regulations, improve our awareness of risk prevention and our ability to operate legally and compliantly.
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Delegate Reviews
Wang Yanmei
Deputy to the Municipal People's Congress, Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhujiafen South District, Changxindian Street, Fengtai District, Beijing
The press conference of the Fengtai People's Court in this issue of "New Cases of the Month" is entitled to properly hear cases involving commercial labels and maintain the order of fair market competition, which not only protects intellectual property rights and protects the interests of rights holders, but also responds to the concerns of the masses of people and protects the legitimate rights and interests of the parties. It is hoped that in the process of developing new productive forces, we will continue to strengthen the popularization of the law, protect intellectual property rights, and maintain the order of fair market competition.
Qi Yan
Deputy to the District People's Congress, Chairman of Beijing Xinyan Future Information Technology Co., Ltd
As a representative of private enterprises, I feel that the people's courts attach great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, and the people's courts have effectively enhanced the confidence of enterprise development, and played an important role in the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, optimizing the business environment and improving international competitiveness.
Niu Liming
He is a member of the District Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the legal representative of Beijing Baoli Sunshine Culture and Sports Development Co., Ltd., and a director of Beijing Baorun Real Estate Co., Ltd
Through the release of typical cases, the Fengtai Court's "New Cases of the Month" news release mechanism establishes adjudication rules, which plays an important role in guiding the public to form a market environment in the jurisdiction that advocates, protects and promotes fair competition. As a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), I am deeply aware of the great significance of strengthening anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition, regulating and guiding the healthy development of capital in accordance with the law, purifying the market environment, standardizing market order, serving the construction of a new development pattern, and optimizing the business environment in the jurisdiction. It is recommended to further strengthen publicity and guidance, enrich the public's legal knowledge reserves, and improve the ability of enterprise entities to operate legally and compliantly.
Wang Yan
Member of the District Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Manager of the Cinema Development Department of China Film Cinema Line Co., Ltd
In recent years, intellectual property infringement cases of the types of "free riding", "rubbing heat" and "famous brands" have attracted widespread attention from the society, and some enterprises have deliberately caused confusion and misled consumers by imitating and using trademarks, trade names and logos with high market influence, and even maliciously preemptively registering trademarks and trade names, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and consumers, and undermining the order of fair competition in the market. The press conference of the Fengtai Court not only introduced the trial of cases involving commercial logos, notified typical cases, but also gave judges' tips on the reasonable rights protection of enterprises and the key points of prevention in commercial activities, which has very important guiding significance for commercial entities to better protect their own rights and interests. At the same time, it is also a sword to infringement, and has a certain warning effect on infringers.
Li Min
Member of the District Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, deputy manager of Beijing Fenghui Wanjia Cultural Development Co., Ltd
The Fengtai Court's "New Case of the Month" press conference was novel in form and pragmatic in content. This time, we focus on cases involving commercial logos as examples, and report the specific trial situation and typical cases, so as to build a scientific brand protection system for enterprises and guide enterprises to establish intellectual property protection measures from multiple dimensions such as commercial logos, packaging, decoration, patents, and copyrights, which is of positive guiding significance, and is conducive to maintaining the order of fair market competition.
Integrity is the foundation of a business. The phenomenon of "famous brand", "free ride" and "rubbing heat" is not only an illegal act of unfair competition, but also a fraud against consumers. The Fengtai Court will further study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, deeply understand the scientific connotation of new quality productivity, continuously update the concept of intellectual property adjudication, give full play to the guiding and promoting role of judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the context of the digital economy, actively carry out cross-departmental and cross-regional exchanges, strengthen coordination and cooperation with administrative functional departments within its jurisdiction, promote the construction of market integrity system, promote the innovative allocation of production factors, and escort "Made in China" with high-quality and efficient judicial protection of intellectual property rights.
Contributed by: Fengtai Court
Editor: Yang Shixia Guo Jin
Review: Wang Fang