What Should New Balance Do When It Loses Its Chinese Name?

Wu Liang's first dual New Balance was purchased ten years ago.

At that time, the brand entered China not long ago.

and

He felt both small and fashionable.

Later, he found that the streets were flooded with signs such as NB and new Bai Lun.

"The Chinese name of New Balance is not.

"Wu Liang passed through the store many times and saw that both were placed together.

But this will not happen again in the future.

A lawsuit recently lost by New Balance means that the three words "new hundred Lun" are no longer equal to brand painting.

Now, on the official website of New Balance, we can not see the trace of its earlier Chinese name.

From 98 million to 5 million

New Balance, the famous US sports shoes brand, has recently been fined 5 million yuan for trademark infringement. The company was sentenced to no longer be allowed to use the "new brun" logo in the future.

And its new affiliate company in China, new hundred Lun Trading (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "new Bai Lun company") needs to publish its statement on the front page of "new New Balance flagship store" and "New Balance children shoes flagship store".

The owner of the "new hundred Lun" Chinese trademark is a private shoe manufacturer in Guangdong. The boss Zhou Lelun is the exclusive right holder of the "new hundred Lun" registered trademark. He applied for registration of "new hundred Lun" trademark in June 2004 and was allowed to register in January 2008.

At the same time, Zhou Lelun also set up an enterprise to produce men's shoes with trademark "new hundred Lun" as trademarks and sales counters in large shopping malls.

In April 15, 2003, the US New Balance was approved to register the "NEW BALANCE" trademark on the twenty-fifth category of shoes.

Xin Bai Lun company was founded in December 2006. New Balance authorized the new brand to use the trademarks in China in November 1, 2007.

In July 2013, Zhou Lelun took the new trademark of Bai Lun against his trademark "Bai Lun" and "Xin Bai Lun", and requested the court to order the latter to stop the infringement immediately, and demanded compensation for the economic loss of 98 million yuan respectively.

This demand was supported.

In April 29, 2015, the Guangzhou intermediate people's court made a first instance judgment, ordered the new hundred Lun company to stop immediately infringing on Zhou Lelun's trademark right, and compensated Zhou Lelun for 98 million yuan.

The judgment is based on the financial evidence of the defendant obtained from the court, and its operating profit during the infringement period is as high as nearly 200 million yuan.

Therefore, New Balance has to pay a heavy price for its mistakes in the Chinese market.

The new hundred Lun company appealed against the first instance judgment to the Guangdong high court.

A few days ago, the result of the second instance was released. The ruling found that Zhou Lelun's registered trademark was legal and effective, but the amount of compensation was reduced to 5 million yuan.

The reason is: consumers buy new products of Bai Lun company to consider the reputation of "N", "NB" and "NEW BALANCE", and the good quality of products.

Therefore, Zhou Lelun advocated that the whole product profits of the new company should be the basis for calculating the amount of damages, and the reasons are not valid.

A Reuters report said New Balance expressed disappointment.

The two time of "wasting" China

In fact, New Balance is not unresponsive to China's trademark being "grabbed".

As early as the end of 2007, the company challenged the trademark office that Guangdong's "new hundred Lun" trademark was suspected of plagiarism and imitation, and demanded that the trademark application be rejected.

However, in the end, the court ruled that the objection was not based on the Chinese plation of New Balance as "new balance".

But this "closed door" did not let New Balance give up the Chinese name of "new hundred Lun", which has since been used in all kinds of publicity and online shops.

In the next few years, as one of the world's top four running shoes brands, New Balance quickly became popular in China's sports shoes market.

Most people, like Wu Liang, will only think of American sports brand once they mention "new hundred Lun", not the Guangdong enterprise with the trademark.

As early as the 90s of last century, New Balance has entered China.

At that time, he used the plation of "New York".

This name is the Chinese name used by New Balance's exclusive agent in mainland China.

But later, the agent privately expanded the output and produced a large number of retro shoes with poor quality, cheap and printed "N", which earned huge profits and registered the trademark of "New York".

As a result, it can be imagined that New Balance cancelled the exclusive agency right of the company in the name of a serious violation of the dealer rules, and also withdrew from the mainland market.

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Until 2003, New Balance returned to mainland China and established its own business.

New Balance is now in an awkward position by losing its name two times.

Although the Guangdong high court thinks that consumers consider the reputation of "N", "NB" and "NEW BALANCE" brand when they buy their products.

However, it is undeniable that after experiencing two times, the brand recognition of the company will undoubtedly cause confusion.

The clothing retail industry expert min Guang Ya thinks, what is worse is, because early unceasingly changes the agent, the dealer, this company's domestic sale already "rotten the main street", "the counterfeit runs rampant."

According to him, because the name trademark is always confused, many consumers first contact is the name of "new hundred Lun".

New Balance is also aware of such confusion.

On the Chinese official website of the company, there are also claims that consumers are taught how to distinguish fake goods. For example, there are few discounts for new products of New Balance, even though the discount rate of off-season goods in factory stores is usually over forty percent off.

But that does not solve the problem.

Now, as long as Taobao search, New York and new Bai Lun characters, there will still be a large number of shops selling "NB".

Will second New lose its name? Let's learn from the lessons of the New Balance? After all, the Chinese market can be regarded as "great potential" for the American sports shoes company founded in 1906. From 2012 to 2014, the annual sales volume of New Balanc in mainland China increased to three digits, and the number of stores increased from 301 in 2011 to more than 1600 in 2014 (of which there were about 60 outlets).