As first reported by IPRlearn, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Market Supervision on February 5, 2021 has fined Shanghai Shangxiang Patent Agency Co., Ltd. (上海尚象专利代理有限公司) 30,000 RMB for filing 26 ‘irregular’ design patent applications.
Burberry Wins Preliminary Injunction Against Baneberry at Suzhou, China’s Intermediate People’s Court for Trademark Infringement
On February 19, 2021, the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court announced it had awarded a preliminary injunction to Burberry against Xinboli Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (新帛利商贸（上海）有限公司), owner of Chinese brand Baneberry, for trademark infringement. Burberry is an iconic British fashion brand founded in 1856 while Baneberry is a fast-growing Chinese brand with 40 physical stores opened in China in the last year and a half.
Colgate-Palmolive Not Rebranding China’s Darlie/Black Person’s Toothpaste Based on Recent Trademark Filings?
In June 2020, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, Colgate Palmolive announced they would consider rebranding (“evolve”) Darlie (previously Darkie) toothpaste which is known in Chinese as 黑人牙膏 (Black Person’s Toothpaste). The rebranding looked liked it was going ahead based on Chinese trademark filings made by Colgate affiliate 好维股份有限公司 (Hawley and Hazel (BVI) Co. Ltd.) in June 2020 for 卫觉公式 and HYMULA. However, since then Hawley has continued to file marks for Black Person and variants that many …
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate Issues 26th Batch of Guiding Cases for Intellectual Property
On February 8, 2021, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the 26th batch of guiding cases covering intellectual property. This batch covers 5 cases including criminal trademark, copyright and trade secret law. Foreign victims included Starbucks, Cisco, and HP in 2 of the 5 cases. A brief summary of the cases follow. The full text is available here (in Chinese only).