Final Judgment of “Zhenwei” Trademark Infringement Case

Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court concluded a case in which Lv Lizhen sued Liu Moushen, Yunnan Zhenwei Tea Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhenwei Tea Company) and Xishuangbanna Zhenwei Tea Factory (hereinafter referred to as Zhenwei Tea Factory) for infringement of trademark right. The three defendants were sentenced to compensation for Lv Lizhen’s economic losses and reasonable expenses totaling more than 530,000 Yuan.

It is reported that Lv Lizhen, a representative of the restoration of traditional manual tea-making technique of Pu’er tea, applied for registration of trademark No. 8292881 on May 13, 2010, and was approved to use the trademark under Class 30 which includes commodities such as tea and tea drinks. Lv has also obtained the exclusive right to use the “臻味” (the Chinese of “Zhenwei”) trademark (hereinafter referred to as the trademark involved in the case) since January 7, 2013.

The Beijing Senyongxiang Tea Sales Center (hereinafter referred to as Senyongxiang Center) operated by Liu Moushen is the agent of Zhenwei Tea Company, and sells the infringing goods; Zhenwei Tea Company is not only the producer of the infringing goods, but also the general distributor; Zhenwei Tea Factory, as the contractor, is responsible for the specific processing and production of the infringing goods.

Lv Lizhen stated that he had begun to use “Zhenwei” trademark since 2005, and had legally obtained the exclusive right to use the trademark; the three defendants maliciously used similar Chinese trademarks and Chinese character combination trademarks on the same commodities, infringing the exclusive right of the trademark involved. On March 15, 2017, Lv Lizhen sued Liu Moushen, Zhenwei Tea Company and Zhenwei Tea Factory to the People’s Court of Xicheng District, Beijing (hereinafter referred to as Xicheng Court), requesting that the three defendants be ordered to stop the infringement, make a public statement to eliminate the impact, and compensate economic losses of 6 million Yuan and other reasonable expenses.

After the hearing, the court found that the trademarks used by the three defendants were similar to that registered by Lv Lizhen, and the commodities were the same. Since the three defendants’ use of the involved trademark is later than Lv Lizhen’s registration of the trademark, the trademarks used by the defendants do not constitute prior trademarks. Therefore, the court ordered the three defendants to stop the infringement, issue a public statement to eliminate the impact, and compensate Lv Lizhen for economic losses and other reasonable expenses totaling more than 1.5 million Yuan.

After the first trial, both Lv Lizhen and the three defendants refused to accept the verdict and appealed to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. After hearing, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court ordered Liu Moushen, Zhenwei Tea Company and Zhenwei Tea Factory to stop the infringement and compensate Lv Lizhen for economic losses and reasonable expenses of more than 530,000 Yuan.

October 16, 2019

Source: epaper.iprchn.com

Photo from: 699pic.com