28.11.2007
Kenwood Defends IP Rights In China
Shortly after Ryohin Keikaku, another Japanese company has gained a court victory in China in IP matters:
Audio equipment maker Kenwood Corporation announced recently that it had won all cases against Chinese companies over infringement of its trademarks, copyrights and design patents.
Kenwood had brought forth infringement claims against three Chinese companies (Fujian Top Way Intelligent Science & Technology Co., Ltd., Fuqing Rongwei Communications Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yichangyuan High Technology Co., Ltd.) with the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court.
Kewood started the lawsuits because of alleged trademark infringement and violation of the Act Against Unfair Competition, copyright infringement, and design patent infringement of wireless radio equipment. The Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court decided in favor of the Japanese company, so Kenwood won all three lawsuits in Beijing in the first instance. The defendants appealed the decisions to the Beijing People’s High Court.
In a fourth lawsuit, Kenwood sued Fujian Top Way over copyright violation with the aim to stop Fujian Top Way copying and distributing software over the internet for setting the frequency of Kenwood’s wireless radio equipment. The court ruled also in favor of Kenwood and again, Fujian Top Way also filed an appeal, in this case with the Fujian People’s High Court.
The judges of the appellate courts in Beijing and Fujian upheld the lower courts’ decisions: The Beijing High People’s Court and Fujian High People’s Court ordered the Chinese companies to pay a total amount of 4.3 million yuan (about 66.65 million JPY/(US $580,300) in damages to Kenwood for selling Kenwood look-alike transceivers labelled ”Kenwei”. They also ordered the three companies to pay damages, stop manufacturing and selling copies of Kenwood products, stop copying and distributing Kenwood software, and issue public apologies in magazines and on their websites.
Kenwood announced that they will continue to promote activities to stop infringements of their intellectual property rights.
China, copyright infringement, design patent infringement, Geschmacksmusterverletzung, Japan, Marken, trademark infringement, unfair competition, Urheberrechtsverletzung, Wettbewerbsverstoß
