Win the case of trademark infringement dispute
Our client is famous international company in the field of instruments, the defendant used our client’s brand, and constitute serious infringement. So, on half of client, we brought lawsuit against the defendant in court.
For the facts as following: The defendant’s equipment business scope being the same as the plaintiff, including the sales, installation, testing, and maintenance of instruments and measuring equipment. The defendant’s equipment company used “HK” as a brand name in the enterprise name without authorization, which led people to mistakenly recognize that it had a specific relationship with the plaintiff, disturbed the market competition order, violated the provisions of Article 6 of the Anti unfair competition Law of China, and should bear legal liabilities for changing the enterprise name, compensating for losses, etc
The court held that the use of “HK” in the original enterprise name of the defendant equipment company constituted unfair competition. According to Article 6 (2) of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Anti unfair competition, the unauthorized use of other’s influential enterprise names (including abbreviations, shop names, etc.) leads people to mistakenly believe that it is another’s goods or has a specific relationship with others, which constitutes an act of unfair competition. In this case, both the plaintiff and the defendant’s equipment companies’ business scope includes the sales, testing, maintenance, etc. of measuring equipment, and they are competitors in the same industry. “HK” is not only the plaintiff’s trade name, but also the registered trademark of the plaintiff. Its trade name and registered trademark were registered earlier than the establishment of the defendant’s equipment company, and after long-term use and promotion by the plaintiff, the “HK” trade name and trademark have had a certain influence and popularity in the industry. The defendant equipment company knew or should have known that the “HK” brand and trademark registration and use were prior, but did not make reasonable concessions, nor did it explain that there was a reasonable reason for its use of the “HK” brand. Its registration and use of the “HK” brand obviously had a malicious intent to attach to the plaintiff’s goodwill, which objectively led to people mistaking it for a specific relationship with the plaintiff, constituting unfair competition.
According to the provisions of Article 58 of the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China, if a registered trademark or an unregistered well-known trademark of another person is used as a shop name in an enterprise name, misleading the public and constituting an act of unfair competition, it shall be handled in accordance with the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Anti unfair competition. In this case, the infringement claimed by the plaintiff HK Company is the use of “HK” in the name of the enterprise. As mentioned above, it has constituted unfair competition. And the court judged the defendant to pay compensation for our client.
