Advertising Trademark Infringement Case: Xtools Finally Wins

Recently, the trademark infringement case of a well-known SaaS software manufacturer XTools v. eight hundred customers in Beijing was reexamined by the first intermediate people's Court of the people's Republic of China. The final judgment was made: the eight hundred Party's claim was rejected and the original judgment was upheld.

It is reported that in November 11th last year, the Haidian court of Beijing publicly heard the trademark infringement case of XTools v. eight hundred customers, and made a judgment in November 16th: the eight hundred passenger infringement was established, and the total cost of compensation for XTools was 50 thousand yuan.

Eight hundred passengers refused to accept the first instance decision and appealed to the intermediate people's Court of Beijing.

Incident review:

In 2004, Beijing Wally Sen Information Technology Co., Ltd. (trade name: XTools) launched online CRM services in China. XTools has developed in recent years, and has accumulated a large number of enterprise customers' experience, and formed a SaaS service mode based on CRM software, and has gained popularity in the industry.

In July 2009, XTools put a TV advertisement in CCTV2, the theme is "enterprise vitamins, promote healthy growth of sales". The CCTV advertising version of XTools is hoping that viewers can search for "XTools" or "enterprise vitamin" through search engines to learn more about XTools's business services.

In July 23rd, in the Baidu search box, search for "XTools" and "enterprise vitamins" appeared in search results. The first appeared in the title: "the most professional XTools of eight hundred customers," and links to the website called the eight hundred passenger company.

According to XTools, the same incidents have occurred many times.

Initiation of litigation:

Beijing Wally Sen Information Technology Co., Ltd. (plaintiff) thinks:

Eight hundred customers should be aware that "XTools" is a registered trademark with the higher reputation of the plaintiff with the exclusive right to use the trademark. However, he still deliberately chooses "XTools" as the key word of the search engine website, and writes "the most professional XTools promotion information of eight hundred domestic customers". It will mislead the relevant public to search the plaintiff's website through the "XTools" keyword to the eight hundred company website, resulting in confusion and misidentification, and eight hundred customers violated the plaintiff's exclusive right to register the trademark.

Therefore, the court told the court that eight hundred customers should compensate the plaintiff for the economic loss of 200 thousand yuan.

Judgement of first instance:

In November 11, 2009, the Haidian court of Beijing heard the case publicly and decided in November 16th as follows:

1. Within seven days from the date of entry into force of this judgment, the defendant eight hundred guest (Beijing) Software Technology Co., Ltd. has compensated the plaintiff, Beijing walling Information Technology Co., Ltd. for a total loss of fifty thousand yuan.

Two: dismiss the plaintiffs of Beijing Wally Sen Information Technology Co., Ltd. on the defendant eight hundred guest (Beijing) Software Technology Co., Ltd. other litigation claims.

Wait.

Final judgement:

Eight hundred customers refused to accept the case and appealed to the intermediate people's Court of Beijing.

The second instance had a result at the end of May. In the second instance judgment, it was clearly stated that the fact that eight hundred customers violated the XTools trademark right was established and maintained the first instance judgment.

The judgment of the second instance is final.