Clothing Companies Counterfeit "LEVI' S" Court Investigation Lawsuit

Reporters recently learned from the court of Chancheng that a garment company in Shunde District of Foshan city had sold the counterfeit brand "LEVI'S" jeans without authorization, and the trademark registrant LEVI STRAUSS & CO. filed a lawsuit against the Chancheng court.

Clothing company counterfeit "LEVI'S" checked

Li Hui company said in its trial that the "LEVI'S" brand enjoys high popularity and goodwill in our country. Through investigation, the company learned that when a clothing company in Shunde was engaged in the production of clothing business, there was a sale of jeans against the company's exclusive right to use the registered trademark. In April 14, 2017, the law enforcement officers of the market supervision and Administration Bureau of Shunde District of Foshan city inspected the premises of the defendant, and found that the garment company had processed jeans with infringement marks without authorization since April 2017. After being confirmed by the market supervision and Administration Bureau of Shunde District of Foshan, the company's behavior is a violation of the exclusive right to use registered trademarks.

Li Hui company believes that it is the trademark registrant of the trademark concerned, and has exclusive right to use the trademark according to law. The clothing company is profit oriented, without the benefit of the company's permission to use the production and sale of the alleged trademark infringement products, a single product infringement trademark is huge, and at the expense of imitating the national registered trademark, the plot and its bad. Therefore, the court ordered the clothing company and its legal representative to destroy all the infringing merchandise inventory with the trademark of Lihui company immediately, and compensate for the economic losses of 200 thousand yuan, the lawyer fee 5000 yuan, and the reasonable expenses of investigation and evidence collection and travel expenses, which amount to 10 thousand yuan.

In the trial, the defendant's Clothing Co. Ltd. and the legal representative of Europe did not appear in court to reply, nor did they provide evidence.

Court: infringement of exclusive right of registered trademark

According to the court of Chancheng, the registered trademarks are registered trademarks approved by the Trademark Office of the General Administration of industry and commerce. During the period of validity, the company enjoys exclusive right to use the registered trademarks. According to the relevant laws, without the permission of the trademark registrant, the use of the same trademark with the registered trademark on the same commodity or the confusion with its registered trademark is a violation of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark. According to the relevant facts found in the spot photos and the administrative penalty decisions issued by the market supervision administration, the registered trademarks used on the infringing goods constitute the same or similar trademarks, so the defendant's clothing company's behavior infringes the right of exclusive use of the registered trademarks of the company.

With regard to the amount of compensation in the case, the evidence provided by Li Hui company is difficult to clarify the interests or losses of the infringer due to infringement, nor does it have any reference to the royalty of the trademark. Therefore, the court takes into consideration the factors such as the popularity of the registered trademark of the company, the subjective fault of the clothing company, the nature of the infringement, the scope of its influence, and the factors such as the reasonable expenses incurred by the company in order to stop the infringement, and the lawyer's fees, etc., so that the clothing company can compensate the economic loss and reasonable expenses of the benefit company for a total of 80000 yuan.

Judge's statement

In recent years, our country has paid more and more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, and the market supervision departments have also intensified the crackdown on violations of intellectual property rights, and the awareness of intellectual property protection in the whole society has been gradually enhanced. However, there are still some operators who produce and sell some infringing goods in pursuit of economic interests, which seriously endanger the legitimate interests of intellectual property owners and society.

As a manufacturing city, Foshan should give effective punishment to the infringed enterprises against the infringement of other people's intellectual property by manufacturing goods, so as to create a fair competition environment for all kinds of enterprises and make Foshan truly become the manufacturing highland for the protection of intellectual property rights.