Case Straight: The US "New Hundred Lun" Fell To "New Quanzhou".

NewBalance is the sports brand of the new balance sports shoes company. It is known as "President jogging shoes".

The most striking symbol is the large English letter "N" on the shoes.

However, the new balance company found that a sporting goods company in Quanzhou, Fujian, uses a similar English letter "N" on its sports shoes, which easily confuses consumers.

Accordingly, the new balance company of the United States brought Quanzhou new ban Sports Products Co., Ltd. to court.

Recently, the second intermediate people's Court of Shanghai finally decided to reject the appeal of Quanzhou's new company, and maintain the original judgment of the first instance. It found that the new class company constituted 480 thousand yuan in unfair competition for the new balance company.

Case replay

In 1983, the new balance company was approved by the State Trademark Office, and registered 175151st "N and map" trademarks, 175152nd "NB" trademarks and 175153rd "NEW BALANCE" trademarks on the twenty-fifth category (shoes) products. The above trademarks are renewed within the validity period.

The "New Balance" sports shoes produced by the new balance company prominently use the capitalized and bold letter "N" logo on both sides of the shoes.

New balance

Since its entry into the Chinese market, it has opened many stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

Beginning in 2004, the new balance company and its related enterprises have published advertisements in a number of newspapers and magazines, such as "boutique shopping guide", "one week in Shanghai" and "upper," and so on, promoting and popularizing "NewBalance" sports shoes.

A lot of advertisements highlighted the "N New" logo on the sides of the shoes of "New Balance" shoes.

The new balance company said its products entered China in 80s of last century, when it plated "New Balance" into "New York" as the Chinese name of its product for external use.

Around 2004, the new balance company opened the "new hundred Lun" as the Chinese name of the product.

The new balance company found that the sports shoes produced by a sporting goods company in Quanzhou, Fujian, also used an approximate English letter "N".

The new balance company of the United States filed a lawsuit against the new Quanzhou company to claim damages of 500 thousand yuan, including a reasonable cost of 80 thousand yuan.

Quanzhou new born company was founded in 2007.

In the use of "New York" as a shop recruit, sell its production of sports shoes.

After the original trial, Quanzhou new born company has obtained the Trademark Registration Certificate No. 4236766th, and has the right to use the trademark logo in twenty-fifth categories of shoes, sports shoes and football shoes. Therefore, the new company believes that the act of using trademark marks on the infringing goods does not constitute unfair competition behavior for the new balance company.

The court held that the "New N" logo on both sides of the new balance company "N Balance logo" is a unique decoration for well-known products.

As a competitor, the new balance company should know that the "N letter" logo on both sides of the new balance company "New Balance" is a unique decoration of well-known products. The new logo is still similar to the new balance company's similar perception on the same location of its similar products, which is also objective enough to cause consumers' confusion and misidentification of the source of goods.

Therefore, the above acts of the company are obviously contrary to the principle of honesty and credit and recognized business ethics, which constitute unfair competition for the new balance company.

The company should bear civil liability for stopping infringement and compensation for losses.