Jiangsu Nantong, an enterprise to produce and sell cake rolls "to pay tribute to the great white rabbit milk sugar" was found trademark infringement

A food company in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, was sued in court by Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. for using a logo similar to the "Great White Rabbit" trademark in the production and sale of cake rolls.
On August 22, under the auspices of a judge of the Intellectual Property Division of the Nantong Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province, the two sides reached a settlement, and the food company immediately stopped infringing the plaintiff's right to exclusive use of registered trademarks of Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. and compensated the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses spent to stop the infringement totalling 35,000 yuan.
, Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. is a "big white rabbit" registered trademark of the subject.
1993, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce recognized the "Great White Rabbit" trademark as a well-known trademark in China.
was awarded the title of "China's Old Name" in 2011, and in February 2016, the "Great White Rabbit" trademark was listed in the "Top 500 Most Valuable Trademarks in China" with a value of 3,985 million yuan.
a food company is a cake-based food enterprises.
In March this year, Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. found that Nantong a food company in its production and sale of cake wrapping paper, a large area and tiled use of the "Great White Rabbit" graphic, think that Nantong a food company's behavior seriously violated the "Great White Rabbit" brand reputation, causing huge economic losses.
under the supervision of a notary public, Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. has carried out evidence preservation of the above sales of infringing products.
In April this year, Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. took Nantong Food Company to Nantong Central Court, requesting that the defendant Nantong Food Company stop producing and selling goods that infringe the exclusive right of the plaintiff's registered trademark, compensate for economic losses and rights expenses of 300,000 yuan, and bear the costs of litigation.
In court, a Nantong food company argued that it had deliberately confused the market by specifically noting at the bottom of the cake roll wrapping paper that "this cake is not an official product of the Crown Garden and only pays tribute to the Great White Rabbit Milk Sugar on behalf of the seller of the cake".
Nantong Central Court after trial that Nantong a food company produced and sold cake rolls, its packaging paper on a large area and tiled use of the "Great White Rabbit" graphic, in the public, easy to detect and easy to link the graphic with specific commodity providers, objectively played a role in identifying the source of goods, constitute a trademark use.
The white rabbit graphic is similar to the "Great White Rabbit" trademark of Shanghai Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd., which is enough to cause confusion and misconception between the relevant public in the process of purchasing, and constitute an infringement of the exclusive right of the registered trademark of the "Great White Rabbit".
Nantong Central Court heard that, although the bottom of the wrapping paper specifically noted that "this cake is not the official production of the crown garden, only on behalf of the seller of this cake to pay tribute to the white rabbit milk sugar", but the description is not enough to determine that its use of the "big white rabbit" graphic is justified, the defendant should bear the civil liability to stop infringement, compensation for losses and so on.
, the parties reached the aforementioned settlement under the mediation of the judge.
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Kai, vice president of the Intellectual Property Division of Nantong Central Court, said that the law provides for the proper use of other people's registered trademarks under certain circumstances.
First, the trademark contains the general name, graphics, model, or directly represents the quality, main raw materials, functions, uses, weight, quantity and other characteristics of the goods, or contains place names, the registered trademark owner has no right to prohibit the proper use of others.
is to state the scope of business, specify the origin and use of goods or services, but also the legitimate use of other people's registered trademarks.
this case, Nantong a food company so-called "honor products" do not fall into the above category, not in line with the proper use of the situation.
addition, even in order to pay tribute to crown health garden company, there is no need to use the crown garden company's trademark logo, with words to pay tribute.
And the so-called tribute language font in this case is very small, not easy to detect, and "Big White Rabbit" graphic is a large area and tiled use, occupying the main part of the product packaging, with a clear plan to climb the crown health park company's trademark reputation, constitute a violation of the crown health park company registered trademark exclusive rights, so the so-called "honor product", just to cover up the purpose of infringement excuse, and can not help it evade legal responsibility.