Final Judgment of Intel Suing Uniview for Trademark Infringement--Uniview Won

The final judgement of the case in which Intel sued Uniview’s “imos inside” for trademark infringement was released. Beijing Higher People’s Court ruled that Uniview won the case and rejected Intel’s claim. This judgment is final.

Since the case is during the trade war between China and the United States, the media call it “the first shot to curb China’s science and technology enterprises”. On March 23, 2018, U.S. President Trump signed a presidential memorandum of understanding on China’s “intellectual property infringement”, which included a 25% tariff on USD 60 billion worth of imports from China. The Sino-US trade war broke out. On the same day, Intel launched the first battle of intellectual property rights between China and the United States by suing Uniview and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

The incident is caused by a trademark dispute. The core of the dispute is whether non-chip companies can use “inside”. Imos system as a large-scale operating system for security protection developed by Uniview is a professional operating system for Internet of Things and multimedia applications. Uniview allows its partners to use the “imos inside” trademark, which was authorized by Trademark Review and Adjudication Board in 2011.

Intel, which has long cherished the brand value of “imos inside”, is surely dissatisfied. Intel first applied to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to revoke the trademark “imos inside”. The board considered that the two were not similar trademarks and issued an administrative judgment that did not support Intel’s claim. Intel then brought Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and Uniview together to court.

Comparing the two trademarks carefully, there are not many similarities except for the word “inside”. At the same time, Uniview is a security equipment provider, while Intel is a chip design and manufacturing company. There is no overlapping between the two areas, so Intel’s claim is untenable under current Chinese law.

In March 2018, Intel won the first trial by Beijing Intellectual Property Court; in April 2018, Uniview declared to recruit lawyers and think tanks worldwide and appealed; in October 2018, the second trial of Beijing Higher People’s Court was held, and in July 2019, Uniview won the final trial.

In the legal field, probability of rejecting first instance judgment in the final instance is very low. This “Intel-Uniview Trademark Case” may become a classic reference case of intellectual property rights of China and the United States.

September 17, 2019

Source: guancha.cn

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