Guide: acquiring products of licensed production of a registrant does not mean being licensed to use the trademark of the registrant.

 

Brief: We represented S Company, which is the trademark registrant, to file a lawsuit of trademark infringement and unfair competition against H Company that used the trademark of S Company in a large scale and advertised its products as imported goods. H Company claimed that the accused infringing product actually came from an associated company of S Company, and thus did not constitute infringement. The court of first instance accepted the defense of S Company and overruled our claim. We filed an appeal and pointed out the mistakes of the judgment of first instance in terms of evidence and law application. The court of second instance judged such that the case was remanded.

 

The court of first instance reorganized a collegiate bench to hear this case. H Company insisted the original defense and supplemented the evidence. We stated that, on one hand, the evidence on record was insufficient to prove that all the products sold by H Company originates from the associated company of S company, and on the other hand, even if there were partial products produced by the associated company based on the licensed technology of S Company, H Company did not have the right to label the involved products. Moreover, H Company knew perfectly well that its products were not imported, yet still advertised it products as imported goods, constituting false propaganda. The court of first instance approved our assertions, supported our claims in full, including eliminating the influence, and determined damages of 3.3. million yuan.
 

H Company was not satisfied and filed an appeal. Finally, the court of second instance made a decision with infringement affirmation and damages awarded, the amount of the damages changed to 800 thousand yuan in light of the value of the product and other factors.