Perhaps showing the future of restaurants in times of social distancing, defendant Xuansu Company (炫速公司) implemented a restaurant meal delivery system to deliver food to customers using rails from kitchen to customers’ tables thereby avoiding the need for any interaction between customers and restaurant staff. However, unfortunately for Xuansu, according to the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court , the installed system infringed Chinese patent no. 101282669B and therefore awarded the exclusive licensee, Yunxiao Company (云霄公司), 1 million RMB.
Category: Case
China’s Supreme People’s Court Releases Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases for 2019
On April 21, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a list of the top 10 intellectual property law cases of 2019. The cases cover patent (invention and design), trademark, copyright, unfair competition and criminal trademark law. Cases in the list were adjudicated by Courts spread over China and at different appeal levels.
31 Million RMB Fine Shows Dual Enforcement Mechanisms for Chinese Trademark Infringement
Beijing Creative Mackey Plus Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (北京创意麦奇佳偶信息咨询有限公司, hereinafter Mackey English) sued the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Administration (北京市朝阳区市场监督管理局) in the Chaoyang District People’s Court of Beijing for imposing a 31 million RMB fine (~$4.38 million USD) for trademark infringement and the Beijing Market Supervision Administration (北京市市场监督管理局) for affirming the fine after already paying damages for infringement in a civil trial. Under the Chinese trademark law, trademark infringers can be subject to both civil liability and administrative penalty.
New Balance Scores Chinese Unfair Competition Victory Against New Barlun
On April 16, 2020, the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court ruled for New Balance Trading (China) Co., Ltd. (新百伦贸易（中国）有限公司, hereinafter New Balance) against Niu Ba Lun (China) Co., Ltd. (纽巴伦（中国）有限公司, hereinafter, New Barlun), awarding 10.8 million RMB (about $1.53 million USD) for unfair competition.