14.11.2007
Danone Joint Venture Group Withdraws Lawsuit Against China Trade Mark Office
There has been a surprinsing development in the lawsuit filed by Wahaha Food Co. (a joint venture formed by the French dairy maker Danone and the Chinese Hangzhou Wahaha Group) against the Chinese Trade Mark Office (CTMO):
A spokesman of Ogilvy & Mather, a public relations company representing Groupe Danone SA in China, told Shanghai Daily last week that the joint venture group has withdrawn the lawsuit against the CTMO. “During the legal process, we believe the facts around the written reply from the state trademark office have been clarified”.
Earlier on, it had been reported by Chinese media that Danone had had no choice than to drop the case against the CTMO as they seemed to have missed a filing deadline.
The MIP reports, however — under references close to the litigation — that the case was dropped because the Joint Venture Group had already obtained its main objective, namely a formal confirmation by the CTMO that Wahaha had not even attempted to transfer the trademarks in question to the Danone Joint Venture Group — which would be a serious breach of the joint venture agreement.
Keywords for this post:
China, CTMO, Danone, Marken, trademarks, Wahaha
