[Shanghai Law Journal] SIPC Pronounced Judgment on 12 cases; The TrademarkCase over Registering as “芭黎贝甜” but Not Using It Lost

 

[Shanghai Law Journal] SIPC Pronounced Judgment on 12 cases; The TrademarkCase over Registering as “芭黎贝甜” but Not Using It Lost   

April 26, 2019, Shanghai Law Journal, B8: Trial

 

(Intern reporter: Zhang Yehe, correspondent: Chen Yingying)

To strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights and reflect the function of intellectual property trial in serving and guaranteeing scientific and technological innovation and in optimizing the business environment, yesterday, SIPC made a collective judgement on 12 cases concerning patents and trademark rights. The parties involved include well-known brands and enterprises at home and abroad such as Hoffman-LaRoche, Alibaba, Louis Vuitton-Mariti, Paris Baguette and Red Star Macalline.

Between December 2014 and September 2017, Ba Li Bei Tian (Chinese: 芭黎贝甜) applied for or accepted three trademarks, including “Ba Li Bei Tian” and “Ba Li Bei Tian and Figure (Chinese: 芭黎贝甜及图),” which are currently valid. After obtaining the trademarks, the company sued Hantao Company (operator of dianping.com) on the grounds that a large amount of information about Paris Baguette (Chinese: 巴黎贝甜) was shown on dianping.com, which constitutes trademark infringement, and Hantao Company should bear the corresponding liability for infringement.

The court of first instance held that the logo of Paris Baguette shown on dianping.com is owned by SPC Group, which does not use this logo on services similar to those approved for the trademark concerned. It does not infringe the exclusive right of Ba Li Bei Tian to use the registered trademark involved in the case. And Hantao Company (i.e., dianping.com) does not directly use the logo of Paris Baguette. Therefore, it does not constitute contributory infringement. Accordingly, the court rejected the claim of Ba Li Bei Tian, which refused to accept the decision and appealed to SIPC.

After hearing the case, SIPC held that Ba Li Bei Tian’s application for registering the trademarks involved in the case and its acquisition of the exclusive right to use these trademarks are not justified. After obtaining the three registered trademarks involved, the company has not used them in actual business activities. The company has neither engaged in any business to date since its establishment. Obviously, its application for registration of the trademarks involved is not intended for use. Rather, it attempts to gain profit through such registration, which not only violates the legislative purposes of the trademark law, but also harmful. On the other hand, SPC Group has been using the logo of Paris Baguette in considerable amount in its business activities since 2006. Before the registration of the trademarks involved, the logo of Paris Baguette used by SPC had already was famous to some extent. Under such circumstances, Ba Li Bei Tian still applied for registration the trademarks involved and tried to claim on that. Its litigation is also unjustified. It goes against the principle of honesty and credit in civil litigation. Accordingly, SIPC rejected its appeal and upheld the original judgment.

 

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