On August 19, the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "Notice on the Legal Rejection of 109 Trademark Registration Applications including "Yang Qian", "Chen Meng" and "Quan Hongchan", and "Yang Qian" and "Chen Meng" were Applications for malicious trademark squatting with names of Olympic athletes such as "Quan Hongchan" and hot words with specific meanings such as "Xing Ge" and "Tian Shen" will be rejected. Subsequently, the trademark registration application of #杨清quanhongchan was rejected in accordance with the law # rushed to the second place in the hot search on Weibo.
It is understood that in addition to "Yang Qian" and "Quan Hongchan", the names of Liu Xiang, Yao Ming, Jia Pingwa, Yang Mi and other "popular" figures have had their names registered as trademarks, and the names and trademarks of public figures have also been registered. It has long become a gray business with endless emergence. In fact, not only the names of public figures, but also the brand trademarks of some well-known companies in various industries have been imitated in various forms by some "sideline" merchants. This has made many companies unable to guard against it, and has even embarked on a difficult road to combat counterfeiting and protect their rights.
Recently, the final result of the trademark infringement case filed by Mati Ceramics against Starwood and Sanrong Home Furnishings was released. After a year, Mati Ceramics finally won the case.
01
"Mati" was registered as a trademark
Mati Ceramics successfully appealed for rights protection
Things will start in July 2020 (before the 2020 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition).
On July 13, 2020, some media discovered an advertisement for "MATI Slate Home Furnishing" on a building in an industrial zone in Nanzhuang Town, Foshan City. However, after learning about it, they learned that the advertisement was related to Guangdong Mati Ceramics Co., Ltd. ( The company to which Matti Ceramics belongs) has nothing to do with it, but it comes from a copycat.
I learned from the insiders of Mati Ceramics that Mati has been copied. The main body of the "Counterfeit Mati" company is Foshan Starwood Building Materials Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Starwood"). The company not only exports advertisements for "MATI Slate Home Furnishing", but also directly claims to cooperate with Porcelain Mati Ceramics to make slates. Finished product, and even participated in the 2020 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition with "Matti Slate Home Furnishing". The copycat brands are so high-profile that the series of operations are confusing.
After the media reported the "Mati Slate Home" copycat incident, Starwood held a media meeting. The "Mati Slate Home" factory Fang Sanrong Home claimed to legally hold the "Mati" Class 20 trademark (furniture) (The registered trademark of Mati Ceramics is the 19th category of building materials). They entered Foshan because they were optimistic about the current booming slate market. The reason why they registered the "Mati" trademark was because they "loved eating horseshoes" and did not even know Mati Ceramics.
Although Sanrong Home Furnishing’s clever words helped to clean up the “Counterfeit Mati” incident, it could not escape the sharp eyes of many people in the industry. It is understood that Sanrong Home Furnishing was established in 2013. Its legal entity is Zheng Haiyang and its registered place is in Chancheng, Foshan. It has been issued a consumption restriction order by the People's Court of Qiaoxi District, Shijiazhuang City. Foshan Starwood Building Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2016 by corporate legal person Wang Jie. Relevant information shows that the Mati trademark was not registered by Wang Jie, but was transferred from Lu Kongxiang in March 2018. The lie that he registered the "Mati" trademark because he loves eating horseshoes is self-evident.
After checking the China Trademark Network, it was found that Guangdong Mati Ceramics Co., Ltd. registered "Mr. Mati" on November 14, 2019, while Starwood "relentlessly pursued" and applied for registration of "Mr. Mati" on May 22, 2020. "Miss Matti", she also applied to register the English name "GANI" for Janyi marble tiles in Category 20!
Obviously, Sanrong Home Furnishings and Starwood's behavior of copying famous brand trademarks has been premeditated.
For this reason, Mati Ceramics embarked on the road of trademark rights protection after issuing a statement on July 25, 2020. From July 2020 to August 2021, after one year, "Matti"The final result of the trademark infringement case was released. Starwood and Sanrong Home Furnishing were ordered to stop infringement and jointly compensate Guangdong Mati Ceramics Co., Ltd. for economic losses of 180,000 yuan. A query on the China Trademark Network shows that currently, the Class 20 (furniture) "Mati" trademark registered by Starwood is "under review for cancellation/invalidation application."
The counterfeiting of Mati ceramic tiles is not only an incident of copycat famous brand trademarks, but also a typical incident of malicious trademark registration. Nowadays, a series of new products and concepts such as "slate" and "slate home" are emerging one after another. The 20th (furniture) trademark registration category that ceramic brands have not paid attention to in the past is likely to be maliciously registered by unscrupulous merchants. The occurrence of the "Ti incident" also sounded the alarm for ceramic companies to protect intellectual property rights.
02
Hundreds of "Jianyi" and "Hongyu"
The copycat brands in the production area are shocking
In fact, not only "Mati", but also well-known ceramic brand trademarks such as "Jianyi", "Hongyu", "Dongpeng" and "Marco Polo" have been copied constantly, and the chaos of "copycat" famous brands in some production areas has become even worse. It's shocking.
In the 2021 "Tao Xing China" national ceramic tile and sanitary ware market survey [Chongqing station], the "Tao Xing China" investigation team discovered a shocking chaos in the local ceramic tile market - a large number of ceramic tile brands "touch porcelain" well-known ceramic tile brands , playing a big edge in brand naming.
Jian Yi's × Marble, Champion's × Ceramics, Champion's World × Ceramics, Champion's Seal × Ceramics, Gold Medal × Ceramics, Elizabeth's White PorcelainBricks, Bee × Home Ceramics, Hongyu × Home Ceramics... Various "well-known ceramic brands" can be seen everywhere on the market. These "copycat brands" are playing tricks on brand names openly, and the dealers who operate them make a lot of money. It is said that many of these brands have successfully registered trademarks.
The reporter searched the China Trademark Network for the names of well-known ceramic brands. The search results for the 19th (building materials) trademark category showed that there were 220 trademark results for "Jianyi", 332 for "Hongyu", and "Dongyu". There are 342 entries for "Peng" and 775 entries for "Champion"...
Among them, the "Jian Yi Zhi ×", "Hong Yu × Home", "Hong Yu Yin ×" and other production area brand trademarks that have appeared in the Chongqing ceramic tile market have all been successfully registered, and there are many similar trademark applications that have been rejected or are "waiting for substance" Review". In addition, the reporter also noticed that these marginal copycat brand trademarks are still being applied for registration.
03
Big brands crack down on infringement
High compensation to “dissuade” illegal businesses
In recent years, as ceramic companies have awakened their awareness of rights protection, many ceramic brands have paid more and more attention to the maintenance of brand trademarks, patents, etc., and have also embarked on the road of cracking down on counterfeiting and safeguarding rights.
Recently, seven defendants including Marco Polo Technology Co., Ltd. and Qingdao Fashion Marco Polo Kitchen and Bathroom Co., Ltd. were ordered to compensate the plaintiff Guangdong Weimei Ceramics Co., Ltd. for infringing the "Marco Polo" trademark rights and engaging in unfair competition. The total economic loss was 2.7 million yuan. This was another case in which Marco Polo’s trademark rights protection action resulted in a high compensation award. It is understood that so far, in the Marco Polo tile trademark infringement case, the compensation award in civil cases has exceeded 50 million yuan, and 23 people have been sentenced in criminal cases for infringement of intellectual property rights.
Infringement of the "Marco Polo" trademark
Coincidentally, in April this year, Mona Lisa’s trademark infringement case was finally concluded and she also received high compensation. It is understood that last year, Mona Lisa complained to Guangdong Super Generation Slate Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Liu for infringement of its "Super Generation" registered trademark rights and unfair competition. It took more than a year to complete the case in 2021. The case was finally concluded in April 2016. Mona Lisa won the lawsuit and was awarded a compensation of 3.2 million yuan. The defendant immediately stopped infringement and changed its company name.
Guangdong Chao×dai slate investment partnership (limited partnership) infringing items Box
As ceramic companies increase their efforts to crack down on infringement, there will be more and more cases of high compensation awards due to trademark and patent infringement. This will further deter many unscrupulous merchants from infringing and better maintain the order of market competition. . At the same time, ceramic companies still need to continue to increase their efforts to crack down on various intellectual property infringements and create a good external competitive environment for brands.
(Author: Sitao)
