Official SUPREME "Guan Xuan" Beat Fake: "Seek Administrative Protection"

The fashion brand SUPREME of the United States is finally unable to sit still.

It is less than a week away from our live report that Supreme Italia has opened shop in Shanghai. Recently, the interface fashion has exclusively obtained the official seal letter of Chapter SUPREME, the owner of the SUPREME brand and the owner of the intellectual property rights of the SUPREME brand.

Affirming that section four company (Chapter 4), as the owner of SUPREME brand intellectual property, will seek administrative protection to Chinese authorities against the fact that the two shops of IBF (Supreme Italia/Spain) and its associated companies opened in Shanghai, China.

At the same time, the statement also said: "IBF imitated the SUPREME brand, misled the media and law enforcement agencies, even Samsung. Above all, they deceive and deceive consumers. We believe that laws and regulations will always curb such unfair competition. "

In the previous interview, many people said that from the trademark color matching, text and other appearance conditions, the brand Supreme Italia, which opened shop in Shanghai, has been difficult to distinguish between the brand SUPREME and the brand that was born in the United States.

Its cooperation with Samsung's "Oolong" is no doubt a powerful proof. Last December, when many ordinary consumers saw SUPREME's iconic red LOGO appearing on Samsung mobile phones, they thought that the brand that had never officially entered the Chinese market looked for a special way to enter.

Samsung also announced its "brand strategic partnership" at the conference and said it was the debut of SUPREME in China. As a result, this wave of cooperation soon ushered in a reversal.

A brand named "Supreme Italia/Spain" also surfaced. Unlike the American company SUPREME, which was founded in James Jebbia in New York in 1994, and is headquartered in New York's Soho District, Supreme Italia/Spain, which is registered with Samsung, is registered in San Marino. According to previous reports from Hypebeast and other media, SUPREME did not plan to enter the Italy market at that time. At that time, its trademark registration qualifications were also compliance.

According to Chinese law, whether it is easy to cause confusion among the relevant public is a major condition to identify trademark infringement. Undoubtedly, for "true" SUPREME fans, the existence of "Legal Fake" legal fake Supreme Italia is harming the brand value of the original brand, and has eaten up some of its potential market space.

Italy Supreme Shanghai Huaihailu Road shop will open soon. Netizens are brazenly selling fake products.

As a legal consultant of SUPREME in China, Dr. Huang Hui, a lawyer of Wan Hui Da law firm and a part-time researcher of the intellectual property center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has also responded exclusively to the question of interface fashion.

He said, "according to the sixth provision of the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China", the name of "Supreme", which has a certain effect on clothing and other commodities that Supreme first used, is protected by law. The two shops' unauthorized use of the trade name of "Supreme" will lead to the fact that the relevant consumers believe that the commodities or business activities sold by the two shops are related to the four companies, causing confusion among the relevant public and forming unfair competition.

According to the relevant provisions of the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, Supreme has the right to file a civil action for judicial protection in the courts of China in accordance with the unfair competition activities of the shops involved, and also has the right to petition the administrative organs for market supervision for administrative protection. If the administrative rights are successful, the operator of the shop involved will bear the administrative legal liability for the confiscation and fines of the infringing products and the involved cases.

According to Huang Hui's fashion to the interface, the inspection team of the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce has filed an application for administrative protection of Supreme, and conducted on-site inspections of the shops involved. The case is under further investigation. If the administrative organ finally decides that the shops involved constitute unfair competition, it will make an administrative penalty for ordering sales to stop, confiscation of infringing products and fines.

According to affirming, chapter four, the company and SUPREME brand will continue to carry out global rights protection actions to effectively protect their intellectual property rights and consumers' legitimate rights and interests.

In recent years, the topic of the Shanzhai SUPREME has never stopped. This brand, born in the United States in the 1994, has expanded a wide range of channels throughout the world, but its popularity is very high. After a large number of cooperation with Louis Vuitton and Nike, its commercial value in the mainstream fashion field has been further confirmed.

This makes it an example worthy of emulating the trend brand. In 2011, Italian company IBF grabbed the Supreme Italia trademark and applied for the legal identity of the Supreme Italia, Supreme Spain, Supreme and other brands through the UN agency "World Intellectual Property Organization", so that it could open up business in other European countries such as Spain.

In China, the tide card from the background of Mafia in Italy also showed ambitions. In December of last year, it announced in a high profile that it was expected to show up in Mercedes Benz center in Shanghai in 2019. It will open a 7 storey flagship store in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, and plans to cooperate with Tmall and Jingdong are also advancing. After the plan was issued, New York Supreme also responded on Instagram that he did not have such a plan.

Therefore, the high-profile "Supreme Italia" is also ridiculed by many industry insiders and media as "legal fake".

But Huang Hui said, "legal fake" is actually a false concept. The so-called authorized person in the shop is IBF (International Brand Firm), claiming to be Supreme Italia. IBF, in accordance with the Madrid Protocol on the international registration of trademarks and the international registration and designation of China based on the trademark application of the San Marino country, on the one hand, Supreme has already invalidate the basic application of San Marino country. According to the central attack principle laid down in the Madrid Protocol, the international registration will be cancelled once this foundation ceases.

On the other hand, according to international registration, the designation of China is only equivalent to an ordinary application. Supreme has already raised objections against its prior application and use. The Trademark Office of China will promptly reject the objection in accordance with the Trademark Law of China or reject the application for trademark registration in accordance with the principle of prior application.

"Without the permission of the trademark owner, the use of its trademark without authorization is a malicious act. It can not be tolerated in any country of the world, especially when the trademark has gained some influence and reputation. Such an act is unfair competition prohibited by the Paris convention. In fact, so far, all Supreme's legal proceedings against IBF launched in Italy have been supported. " Huang Hui said to interface fashion.

He also said: "since Supreme has already been used in China and has a certain impact, at present, IBF's trademark is used in China after the application, and it lacks legal basis for the use of the trademark in China. Legal Fake (legal counterfeit) itself is a false concept, it can not be established at the same time, since it is Fake (counterfeit) can not be Legal (legitimate), if Legal (legitimate) will not be Fake (counterfeit), and the use of such contradictory concept is actually misleading the public.

Next to the road sign of No. 839 Huaihai Road, a brown brand with "Supreme luxury" and a brand of "Italy brand" are seen below.

In fact, in 2016, the SUPREME of the United States told the Supreme Italia to the Milan court. The lawsuit was judged to be unfair competition in early 2018. The infringer must put 120 thousand goods on the shelves and make financial compensation for Supreme.

That's why we can't find the official website of Supreme Italia on the Internet now. Its official website has been ordered to close, and online information has been changed to Supreme Spain's official website and social media account.

It has to be said that the controversy between Supreme Italia and SUPREME reveals the lack of awareness and protection of intellectual property rights in the current market. Once the rights and interests of the brand are infringed, it will take a lot of time and financial cost to safeguard their interests, which will undoubtedly greatly increase the burden of brand operation. If we want to improve the infringement problem in the fashion industry ecosystem, we need to make joint efforts from the brand end and the consumer market.

After all, not everyone is a hard core fan. Even in the tidal current circle, buying fake knowledge is a taboo. However, ordinary consumers' ignorance of Chao's confusion and ignorance of brand history have aggravated the difficulty of safeguarding brand rights.