The recent judgement of the General Court of the European Union in Case T‑323/21 Castel Frères v. Shanghai Panati Co. deals with the genuine use of a trade mark and distinctiveness of Chinese character trade marks in the EU.
Audi's request to invalidate NIO ES8 and ES6 trademarks in Europe rejected, according to news on Feb 24. The European Intellectual Property Office has ruled that NIO's ES8 and ES6 and Audi's S8 and S6 do not constitute a likelihood of confusion and thus rejected Audi's request.
Recently, Audi has won a trademark lawsuit against Nio in Germany. According to media reports, the District Court of Munich ruled that the NIO ES6 and ES8 names infringed Audi's trademark rights because they could be mistaken for electric models of the Audi brand S6 and S8.
On January 13, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Draft Amendment to the Trademark Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft for Comment) (中华人民共和国商标法修订草案（征求意见稿）). The Draft expands the Trademark Law to 10 chapters and 101 articles.
National patent and trademark pledge reached more than 400 billion yuan from January to November this year, achieving a high growth for three consecutive years, according to the China National Intellectually Property Administration (CNIPA).
