28.07.2008

Chinese Court Decides NEC Trademark Infringement Case

Posted in Trademarks, Courts and Cases, China, Japan at 10:45 am by TMSJ

After the Department of Industry and Commerce of the Zhuhai Province had confiscated a huge number of fake NEC products (mainly keyboards) in November 2006, the Japanese IT company NEC (Nippon Electric Company Ltd.) sued four Chinese companies for infringment of NEC`s trademark, which has been registered in the People’s Republic of China since 1979. NEC saw its reputation damaged by the infringement.

The Beijing Intermediate People’s Court ordered the defendants Zhuhai Yuehua Electronics Company, Zhuhai Yuehua Technology Development Company, Shenzhen Jinjijia Electronic Industry Company and Beijing Shiji Yuehua Technology Development Center to refrain from manufacturing and selling its infringing products. In addition, the four defendants have to indemnify NEC to the amount of 1.15 million yuan (about € 105,700) in damages. The court determined one million yuan to be actual damages for NEC’s lost profits and 150,000 yuan for attorneys’ fees and expenses. Originally, NEC had asked for a total of 1.5 million yuan in compensation.

Source

20.09.2007

Olympic Statistics (of Infringement Cases)

Posted in Statistics, China at 10:19 am by TMSJ

The Chinese State Intellectual Property Office SIPO reports 33 cases of “general violations of Olympic symbols” during the first half of 2007, with an estimated value of 301,700 Yuan (30,000 Euro). The state imposed 284,200 Yuan in fines (27,000 Euro) and seized and removed 5,123 labels containing Olympic symbols.

In the same period, SIPO handled 109 cases of dealing with the infringement of exclusive rights of Olympic symbols (probably counterfeiting of goods produced by exclusive licensees) with an estimate value of 891,500 Yuan (85,000 Euro) and the total amount of fines running up to 1,065,100 Yuan (101,000 Euro).

The customs in the province Fujian confiscated 5,000 counterfeited tags using the log “Beijing 2008 Olympics” or “Beijing 2008″.

Considering the overall low number of cases, one can probably safely assume the number of unreported cases to be much higher.

Source