On September 2, 2020, just 6 months after the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate announced the criminal copyright prosecution of Lego infringers, the Shanghai Third Intermediate Court has announced the sentencing of the same 9 people to up to 6 years in jail and a 90 million RMB (~$13 million USD) fine. The group of 9 had sold over 300 million RMB of infringing products under the Lepin (乐拼) brand and had over 30 million RMB of infringing products stored ready for …
Category: Case
Chinese Utility Model Patent That Survived 19 Invalidation Attempts Leads to 1 Million RMB in Damages
In decision （2020）最高法知民终357号 released August 10, 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Court affirmed an earlier award of 1 million RMB (~$145 thousand USD) for infringement of utility model (UM) patent no. ZL201420522729.0. The UM relates to a selfie stick and has already survived 19 attempts at invalidation.
Beijing Intellectual Property Court Rules for Château Lafite Rothschild Winery Against Real Estate Developer in Trademark Dispute
The Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced a victory for Château Lafite Rothschild against Huailai Lishihongya Company (怀来利世鸿亚公司) and two other unnamed defendants, awarding Rothschild 5 million RMB (~$720 thousand USD) for trademark infringement on August 7, 2020. Lishihongya was developing a real estate complex and used the trademark “CHATEAU LAFITE” 拉斐 (La Fei – the Chinese name of Lafite) on the gates of the complex and support facilities, as well as in marketing material. Rothschild has sold wine in the …
Shanghai Police Announce Arrests in Hasbro Transformers Criminal Copyright Case
Shanghai may be becoming the venue of choice for criminal prosecution of intellectual property infringement. On July 23, 2020, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau announced the arrest of several individuals affiliated with the Wei Jiang Company (“威将”) for criminal copyright infringement of Hasbro’s Transformers toys. The alleged sales volume of infringing goods was over 100 million RMB (~$14 million USD) and more than 30,000 imitation products and parts were seized. This follows the recent announcement of the conviction of Dyson trademark …