The LEHMAN, Lee & Xu China Trademarks Newsletter keeps you up to date on recent developments in
China Trademark law and practice
China Supreme Court finds Increased Damages for Infringment of
Famous Trademark
A March 2016 decision by the Supreme People’s Court surprised by finding that a trademark’s reputation may be taken into account when determining infringement, and by raising the level of damages awarded against an infringer.
Everyone knows the “MICHELIN” brand of tires and the iconic “Michelin Man.” In China these Trademarks are registered as follows:
In 2010, it was discovered that one of the brand’s former distributors in China was using the following marks:
The lower courts in which the matter was heard awarded Michelin RMB 60,000 in damages, but found that the mark “CENCHELYN” (Figure 5) did not infringe on the “MICHELIN” (Figure 1) mark.
Upon appeal to the People’s Supreme Court, damages were raised to RMB 500,000, the maximum allowed by China’s Trademark Law, on the basis of the strong reputation of the Michelin brand. The court also ruled that Figure 5 does indeed infringe on Michelin’s Figure 1. We are please to see the Supreme Court raise the damages in this case. This appears to be one more sign of stronger trademark protection and enforcement trends in China.
This document has been created for educational purposes for clients, potential clients and referrers of services to LEHMAN, LEE & XU, and to alert readers to the services provided by LEHMAN, LEE & XU. It is not intended to serve as definitive professional or legal advice, and should not be relied upon as such. LEHMAN, LEE & XU does not endorse any personal opinions which may be contained herein.
You may share this document with your friends or colleagues, either by forwarding the e-mail edition to them (provided that the contents of the e-mail edition, including all notices, are preserved in their entirety), or by directing them to the online edition here. You may use short excerpts from this document in your own work (provided that each such excerpt shall not exceed three sentences in length; no more than twenty percent of this document, by word length, may be excerpted; no more than twenty percent of your work, by word length, may consist of such excerpts; each such excerpt shall be attributed to LEHMAN, LEE & XU, with such attribution to include the Internet address of the & XU). All other rights reserved.
