After considering the popularity of the trademark involved in the case, the nature of the infringement and other factors, the court ruled that the defendant "Xindu Guanshengyuan" needed to stop the trademark infringement and compensate Shanghai Guanshengyuan for losses of 500,000 yuan.
The plaintiff, Shanghai Guanshengyuan, was founded in 1918. Later, Guanshengyuan successively set up branches in Nanjing, Chongqing, Kunming and other places, and the branches in various places belonged to the locality, and had nothing to do with "Shanghai Guanshengyuan", only the name of "Guanshengyuan" was retained. In 1997, Shanghai Guanshengyuan Company was established. After 2000, the "Guanshengyuan" trademark was recognized by the State Trademark Office as a well-known trademark and a time-honored brand in China. In 2012, "Shanghai Guanshengyuan" obtained the "Guanshengyuan" series of trademarks.
On the other hand, in 1997, Chongqing Guanshengyuan Company signed the "Joint Venture Agreement" with Xindu Ruichunyuan to establish the Xindu Guanshengyuan Food Associate Factory, and "Xindu Guanshengyuan" has become the enterprise name of the enterprise. In 2012, "Xindu Guanshengyuan" was recognized as a famous trademark in Chengdu.
Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. believes that "Xindu Guanshengyuan", as a competitor in the same industry, registered "Guanshengyuan" as its own enterprise name under the premise that the plaintiff's "Guanshengyuan" brand name and trademark already have a very high influence, which is likely to cause confusion and misidentification among the relevant public, obvious malice, violation of the principle of good faith, and constitute unfair competition. At the same time, the defendant's prominent use of the words "Xindu Guanshengyuan" and "Xindu Guanshengyuan Production" on its products, official websites and WeChat public accounts also constituted trademark infringement.
Therefore, Shanghai Guanshengyuan filed a lawsuit with the court, requesting that the defendant be ordered to stop infringing the exclusive right to use its registered trademark; stop using and canceling the website domain name www.xdgsy.com.cn; stop the unfair competition of using "Guanshengyuan" as the enterprise name, and change the enterprise name within a time limit; and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 5 million yuan.
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The defendant, Chengdu Xindu District Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd., held that the enterprise's actions did not constitute trademark infringement or unfair competition.
The origin of the "Guanshengyuan" in the enterprise name of Xindu Guanshengyuan is a joint venture with Chongqing Guanshengyuan, which has been used to this day and is not intended to be attached. The two trademarks under the name of Xindu Guanshengyuan, "New Crown" and "Jubilee Fang", have created a certain degree of popularity in Sichuan and even in the southwest region, of which the "New Crown" trademark has been rated as a famous trademark in Chengdu, and in the case of smooth brand development, the defendant enterprise does not need to be famous.
The Putuo People's Court held that the defendant obtained the "Guanshengyuan" brand name because of its historical origin and background of the times, the enterprise had a succession relationship with Xindu County Guanshengyuan Food Associate Factory, and its registration and use of the "Guanshengyuan" brand name was earlier than the time when Shanghai Guanshengyuan Company obtained the "Guanshengyuan" brand name, and also before the "Guanshengyuan" trademark was recognized as a well-known trademark and a Chinese time-honored brand.
At the same time, it is not uncommon for a traditional time-honored brand to form a coexistence of multiple time-honored business entities under the same lineage due to historical reasons, in this case, each business entity is not malicious, and the right to form a brand name has its legitimacy.
The defendant has been operating in the local area for many years, has a certain scale and production capacity, and if the enterprise name is used in a complete and standardized manner, it will not cause confusion and misidentification among the relevant public, so it will not constitute unfair competition.
At the same time, the court held that the two enterprises were both competitors in the food industry, and the defendant should have known that the plaintiff's "Guanshengyuan" trademark had a relatively high reputation, and also knew that the guanshengyuan brand name, trademark and packaging should not be used after the end of the joint venture cooperation, and should be reasonably avoided in the use of the relevant logo.
However, the defendant did not standardize the use of the enterprise name, and highlighted the words "Xindu Guanshengyuan" and "Xindu Guanshengyuan Production" on the product, official website, and WeChat public account as product recommendation, which is difficult to say that it is legitimate.
In this case, "Guanshengyuan" was both the plaintiff's well-known trademark and China's time-honored brand name, as well as the name of the plaintiff and its affiliates, and the relevant public, under the condition of general attention, could not distinguish whether the defendant's use method pointed to the enterprise name or the trademark, which was likely to cause the relevant public to confuse and misidentify the above logo with the plaintiff's trademark involved in the case, constituting trademark infringement.
In summary, the court determined the amount of compensation as appropriate in accordance with law after considering the popularity of the trademark in question, the nature of the infringing act carried out by the defendant, the degree of fault, the duration of the infringement and other infringing circumstances, and ordered the defendant to stop the trademark infringement and compensate the plaintiff for losses of 500,000 yuan. At present, the judgment has entered into force.
Source: Thoughtful