Recently, the Guandu Court of the Guandu District People's Court heard a trademark infringement case, in which Beijing Red Star Co., Ltd. held that the "small pot wine" produced and sold by Shilin No. 1 Distillery had trademark infringement and claimed 200,000 yuan.
In February last year, Beijing Red Star Company found that a certain brand of 5L "Xiaoguo Liquor" sold online was highly similar to their company's product trademark, and relevant personnel found that the brand "Xiaoguo Liquor" was produced in a sake factory in Shilin County, Yunnan Province, and the distributor was a department store in Qujing City. Beijing Hongxing Company believed that the overall structure, proportion and text of the trademark used in the "Xiaoguo Liquor" were basically the same as those of Hongxing Erguotou, so it believed that it had constituted trademark infringement, so it sued the "Xiaoguo Liquor" production company, its legal representative and distributor to the court, demanding that the three defendants immediately stop the infringement and claim 200,000 yuan.
Source: Kunming Guandu District People's Court
Judge Xia Lingli of the Guandu Court of the Guandu Court: "During the trial, the defendant has always argued that it has not constituted trademark infringement against the plaintiff, and the defendant has applied for its own trademark 'Tian' in accordance with the law, and has clearly marked the trademark on its own production of liquor. ”
After trial, the court held that the case was a trademark infringement dispute. In this case, the categories of goods approved for use by the two trademarks involved in the case, "Xiaoguo Liquor" and the plaintiff Red Star Company, both included "wine". The bottle label decoration on "small pot wine" can play a role in identifying the source of the product, which is a trademark use.
After comparing the trademarks, it was found that, on the whole, the overall structure of the two was the same, the color was similar, the proportional relationship was basically the same, and the size, color and distribution of the characters were basically the same. Although the bottle label decoration of "Xiaoguo Liquor" is marked with "Tian Mou Xiaoguo Liquor" and the trademark "Tian Mou", and the bottom is marked with "a sake brewery in Shilin County", the "Xiaoguo Liquor" uses the bottle label decoration with the same overall structure as the trademark of Red Star Company, the main identification parts are similar, the proportions of each part are basically the same, and the color is similar, which makes it difficult for the relevant public to distinguish them in general attention, and it is easy to cause confusion or misidentification.
Judge Xia Lingli of the Guandu Court of the Guandu Court: "The defendant argued that the parts produced by the defendant, except for the similarity between the color of the outer packaging and the corresponding layout of the parts produced by the plaintiff, the rest of the trademarks and words were quite different, which would not cause confusion among the general public, so it did not constitute infringement." ”
During the trial, the court found that the decoration of the defendant's "small pot wine" was similar to the trademark of Red Star Company as a whole, and it was the same as the category of goods approved for use by the trademark of Red Star Company. The defendants' production and sale of the allegedly infringing goods by a sake brewery in Shilin County and a department store in Qujing City have constituted an infringement of the plaintiff's exclusive right to use the registered trademark involved in the case, and they should bear civil liability to stop the infringement and compensate for losses.
In the end, the court ordered the three defendants to immediately stop producing and selling the goods that infringed on the plaintiff's exclusive right to use the registered trademarks No. 32XXX67 and No. 31XXX72 of Beijing Hongxing Company, and that the defendant distillery and its legal representative should compensate the plaintiff for losses and reasonable expenses totaling 40,000 yuan, and that the defendant Qujing department store should compensate the plaintiff for losses and reasonable expenses totaling 5,000 yuan.
Judge Xia Lingli of the Guandu Court of the Guandu Court: "The trademarks we are familiar with are all font trademarks, but in fact, the specific form of trademark expression, in addition to the font, also has graphics, sounds and even smells, etc., and the packaging and decoration of well-known trademarks, if you use them, it also constitutes infringement (behavior)." ”
Judge's afterword
Article 57(1) of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (amended in 2019), Items (2) and (3) stipulate that the use of a trademark identical to the registered trademark on the same goods without the permission of the trademark registrant, the use of a trademark similar to the registered trademark on the same goods without the permission of the trademark registrant, or the use of a trademark identical or similar to the registered trademark on similar goods, which is likely to cause confusion, and the sale of goods infringing the exclusive right to use a registered trademark shall be an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark.
Trademarks have economic value, and the exclusive rights enjoyed by the trademark owner in accordance with the law belong to intellectual property rights and are protected by law in accordance with the law. The form of trademark includes words, graphics, smells, sounds, etc., and in daily life, producers must pay attention to the fact that the use of other people's graphic trademarks for the packaging and decoration of similar goods is also a trademark use, although it has been clearly marked that its own trademark is used to distinguish the source of goods, it is also an infringement.
The judge hereby reminds that business operators should raise their awareness of law-abiding and intellectual property protection, keep the bottom line of legal operation, and criminal acts that take risks will be severely punished by law. If consumers find that a business operator has violated the law, they should promptly take the initiative to complain and report to the market supervision department, or report the case to the public security organ.
Source: 8099999 Streets and Alleys
Part of the source: Kunming Guandu District People's Court
Editor: Li Yingna
Editor: Li Jing
Final review: Zhao Wen