Because A Letter, A Company Was Sentenced To Pay 10 Million!

The two brands of "New Balance" and "NEWBARLUN" make many consumers feel "silly and confused". Apart from similar pronunciation, the more important reason is that two sides of the two sports shoes use only the minor capital letter N. To this end, the new Bai Lun Trading (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the new Bai Lun company) took nabarun (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as nabarun company) and Zhao Chengpeng as an unfair competition as a claim to the court, claiming 30 million yuan.

On the morning of April 16, 2020, Kim min Chun, vice president of the Pudong New Area people's Court of Shanghai (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Pudong court) served as the presiding judge and made a first instance judgment on the case of unfair competition. The new company had to pay 10 million yuan for economic losses and 800 thousand yuan for safeguarding rights and expenses, in addition to halting unfair competition and making public statements.

The above is a registered trademark of plaintiff 5942394th, and the following is a registered trademark of defendant 4236766th.

　　 dispute

There are N letters on sports shoes.

The plaintiff claims that the new balance sports company is a famous sporting goods manufacturer in the United States, and its "New Balance" brand sports shoes have a high reputation and market share in China. The company has registered trademarks such as "New Balance", "NB" and "N" in our trademark office.

The "New Balance" sneakers have a symbolic design, which is decorated with the capitalized English letter "N" on the sides of the shoes near the center of the shoelace. This decoration has been closely related to the brand sports shoes and has become the primary identification of the source of goods.

Authorized by the plaintiff, the plaintiff in China does not monopolize the use of the above-mentioned series of trademarks and "New Balance" sports shoes unique packaging and decoration business activities, and has the right to litigation alone and related to unfair competition behavior. According to the plaintiff, the sports shoes produced on the two sides with "slash N logo" are heavily manufactured and sold by Nb, which infringe on the decoration of the new balance sports company. The defendant's continuous enforcement of unfair competition results in the decrease of the plaintiff's product evaluation and the derogation of goodwill, which brings huge losses to the plaintiff. Zhao Chengpeng should also bear civil liability for selling relevant products through the shops he sells.

The plaintiff appealed to the court to request the two defendants to stop the unfair competition and make a public statement to eliminate the impact. The new company compensated the plaintiff's economic losses and the reasonable expenses for safeguarding rights, which amounted to 30 million yuan. Zhao Chengpeng compensated the economic loss and the reasonable expenditure of 500 thousand yuan.

　　 Defendant

The right to use registered trademarks on approved commodity categories.

In the trial, the new company argued that it did not agree with all plaintiff's claims. As a registered trademark of sluice N 997335th and 4236766th, the company has the right to use registered trademarks in the approved commodity category according to law, and all the trademarks are legal and effective trademarks, and they should be protected according to law. Therefore, the use of registered trademarks on sports shoes does not constitute unfair competition.

In addition, the N letter decoration on both sides of the plaintiff's shoes was registered as registered trademark No. 5942394th in 2010. The plaintiff is still on the basis of certain decorations of commodities. According to the anti unfair competition law, the use of a series of registered trademarks by NB is unfair competition and lacks the basis of claim.

Zhao Chengpeng contends that all of its shop products are purchased from the new purchase company through the regular purchase channel, which does not constitute infringement on the plaintiff. The amount of compensation originally claimed for 500 thousand yuan also has no legal basis. At present, its shops are closed and cancelled.

Court

A registered trademark shall not infringe upon the prior rights and interests of others.

After hearing the trial, the Pudong court of Shanghai held that, through long-term publicity and repeated use, it was enough for the relevant public to connect the N letters with the "New Balance" sports shoes on both sides of the sports shoes, so that the decoration had the distinguishing feature of identifying the source of the merchandise. Therefore, the N letter decoration on both sides of the shoes advocated by the original company was "an adornment with certain influence". From the relevant publicity reports and judicial decisions, the decoration has already had a certain effect before the application date of defendant's trademark registration No. 4236766th.

The right to exclusive use of a registered trademark is obtained through the administrative authorization procedure. "The decoration of goods that has a certain effect" is a civil right that is protected by law because it acknowledges its actual existence. Both of them belong to independent intellectual property types. They are different in terms of constituent elements, formation time, rights and interests, scope of protection and duration. When the defendant's action may cause trademark infringement and unfair competition at the same time, it belongs to the concurrence of claims. The right holder can clearly choose a legal relationship to advocate.

When dealing with conflicts between different market players based on trademarks or decorations, they should follow the principle of good faith, which should protect both the prior rights and the market confusion. If the logo is similar to the product decoration that has a certain effect on others, it will cause confusion. Even if the logo is a registered trademark, it will not prejudice the market interest that has already been affected by the infringement of the good faith principle, whether or not it has been revoked through administrative procedures.

　　 Sentence

Constitute unfair competition, compensation 10 million 800 thousand yuan.

As the most important and significant part of their decorations, the two N identities used by the plaintiff and defendant are the visual effects of the capital letter N. In the case of segregation comparison, especially the footwear products as consumer goods, consumers usually give general attention. The distinction between the two identities is not obvious in terms of factor composition and visual effects. The nuances are not enough to attract consumers' attention, and the two constitute an approximation.

As a competitor in the same industry, the company has used similar marks in the same position of the same kind of goods, knowing that the plaintiff's shoes are affected by the N letter decoration. The subjective fault of accusing the plaintiff's goodwill and causing confusion in the market is obvious. And the generally recognized business ethics constitute unfair competition.

In addition to halting unfair competition and eliminating the impact, Nb should also be held liable for damages. The plaintiff's actual losses and NaBen's profits can not be determined. However, the existing evidence proves that the plaintiff's loss exceeds the upper limit of the statutory compensation amount by 5 million yuan. The court's comprehensive reputation on the two sides of the plaintiff's N letters is relatively high, and the defendant's unfair competition behavior is longer, the scope is wide, and the subjective fault is more obvious. The compensation amount is 10 million yuan, as appropriate. We will give full support to the 800 thousand yuan safeguarding rights and reasonable expenses.

In addition, there is no evidence to prove that Zhao Chengpeng has subjective faults in helping others to commit torts in the sales process, and his shop has ceased operation and cancelled. The plaintiff demands that he bear the corresponding civil liability, lack of legal basis and no real necessity, so he will not support Zhao Chengpeng for all his claim.

Accordingly, the court made the above decision in accordance with the law.