Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court upheld a lower court’s decision and ruled that Appellee Shenzhen Chow Tai Fook Online Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, “Chow Tai Fook”) and Defendant Beijing Jingdong Century Commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, “Jingdong”) did not infringe Appellant/Plaintiff Jun Zheng Ma’s trademark because Ma’s action of suing Chow Tai Fook with a trademark not registered in good faith constituted an abuse of rights. Background Chow Tai Fook created the brand “骄人” (pronounced jiao ren) in 2006 and …
Category: Case
Beijing IP Court Dismisses First Trademark Case Under New Supreme People’s Court Jurisdictional Rules
On May 23, 2022, the Beijing Intellectual Property (IP) Court announced for the first time that it had dismissed a trademark case for lack of jurisdiction under the Supreme People’s Court’s new “Several Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Jurisdiction of Civil and Administrative Cases of Intellectual Property Rights of First Instance” released April 21, 2022. The proper Court for trademark infringement cases are basic People’s Courts and not the specialized IP Court. The Beijing IP Court, however, retains …
Guest Post: First Successful Patent Invalidation in China Based on No Foreign Filing License
Guest post by Haoyu ZHOU (Elliot) of Foundin Intellectual Property It is commonly known that any inventions made (or partially made) in China must first obtain a foreign filing license from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) BEFORE it can be filed as a patent application in countries/regions outside China. Failing to do so will violet Article 20.1 of the Chinese Patent Law and will result in an invalidation of the corresponding Chinese patent. But, in practice, there were …
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation Releases Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Enforcement for 2021
On April 21, 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released the Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Enforcement by Market Supervision Departments (市场监管部门知识产权执法典型案件). The 20 cases involved trademark infringement, patent counterfeiting, Olympic logos, malicious trademark registration and the unauthorized practice of patent law, etc. Of foreign companies involved, one Chinese company was fined 10.55 million RMB for infringement of John Deere’s trademark and another was fine 1.05 million RMB for infringement of Costco’s Kirkland trademark.