Case Brief

Petitioner: Beijing Donglaishun Group Co., Ltd.

Respondent: LIU Yuzhi

The main reasons made by the petitioner are the following: the respondent has obvious subjective malice, and the disputed trademark constitutes a reproduction or imitation of the trademark "东来顺" of the petitioner, which violates the provision of Article 13 of the Trademark Law.

After trial, the Trademark Office believes that when the petitioner filed a request for invalidation of the disputed trademark, it had been more than 5 years since the date of registration of the disputed trademark. According to the provision of Article 45 of the Trademark Law, the petitioner not only needs to provide evidence to prove that the trademark "东来顺" has been well-known to the relevant public before the application date of the disputed trademark, but also needs to prove that the owner of the disputed trademark had malice. The evidence on record submitted by the petitioner can prove that "东来顺" has been identified as a China Time-honored Brand before the application date of the disputed trademark, and has reached the popularity widely known by the relevant public, while the trademark owned by the respondent involves multiple categories of goods and services, which clearly exceeds the business scope stated in the individual business license submitted by the respondent. At the same time, when the originality and popularity of the trademark "东来顺" are considered, the subjective malice of the respondent in the reproduction or imitation of the trademark "东来顺" is obvious. The registration and use of the disputed trademark can easily mislead the public and may cause harm to the rights and interests of the petitioner. According to the provision of Article 13.3 of the Trademark Law, the disputed trademark shall be invalidated.

Case Significance

The case, by applying the provision of Article 13.3 of the Trademark Law, gave China Time-honored Brand trademarks strong protection on non-similar goods, cracked down the behavior of malicious trademark registration, and played a very good guiding role in boosting the confidence of China Time-honored Brand enterprises in protecting their intellectual property, improving the awareness of intellectual property protection, helping China Time-honored Brand enterprises to glow new vitality in the new situation. (CHEN Si)

(Source: website of the CNIPA Trademark Office)