United States.

New Balance, a brand founded by Mr. William J. Riley in Boston, the marathon city of the United States, in 1906, is known as the "President's Jogging Shoes" and "The King of Jogging Shoes" in the United States and many countries.

One day, when he was observing the chickens in the yard, he found that the chickens could maintain balance on their three paws, so he applied his inspiration to the design and development of foot arch supports. , the name New Balance came into being, and the fact that Mr. Riley was inspired by the shape of chicken paws has become a legend. Extended information

NB loses the lawsuit and loses its Chinese name again? "New Balance" will return to the domestic brand

The New Balance trademark dispute case has the final result recently. The Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court (hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong" "High Court") publicly pronounced the judgment on the New Balance trademark dispute case. Although the final judgment still found that New Balance Trading (China) Co., Ltd. constituted infringement, the first-instance compensation of 98 million yuan was changed to 5 million yuan.

This also means that the New Balance brand is no longer regarded as a copycat brand of New Balance (hereinafter referred to as "NB"), but a domestic brand protected by law; at the same time, NB is also the second largest brand in mainland China. I lost my Chinese name for the first time.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court found in the first instance that Chaoyang Shoes and Hats Company was approved to register the "Bailun" trademark in August 1996. The trademark was transferred to Zhou Lelun in April 2004. In June 2004, Zhou Lelun applied for registration of the "New Balance" trademark. In January 2008, the trademark was approved for use on Class 25 "shoes, boots...sweatshirts" and other products.

On April 15, 2003, the American company New Balance was approved to register the "NEW BALANCE" trademark in Category 25 "shoes".

New Balance Trading (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "New Balance Company") was established in Shanghai in December 2006. It is mainly responsible for selling the "NB" series of sports shoes in the mainland, and has chosen to use "New Balance" "New Balance" is used for publicity and marketing in Chinese, and the "New Balance New Balance" logo is used in product advertisements.

After trial, the Guangdong High Court confirmed that the facts found by the original court were true. New Balance was established on December 27, 2006, later than the application date for the registered trademark involved in Zhou Lelun's case.

As for the amount of compensation, the Guangdong Higher People’s Court held that when consumers purchase New Balance products, they consider more the reputation of the “N”, “NB” and “NEW BALANCE” trademarks and the goodwill they contain. The quality of the products, New Balance's operating profits are not all derived from infringement of Zhou Lolun's "Bailun" and "New Balance" trademarks.

The court of second instance stated that based on the evidence in the entire case, the Guangdong High Court finally determined that New Balance should compensate Zhou Lelun for economic losses and reasonable expenses paid to stop the infringement, totaling 5 million yuan.

"New Balance" is the name New Balance used when it entered the mainland market in the 1990s. However, when New Balance re-entered the mainland market in 2003, it had abandoned this name and switched to "New Balance". The Chinese trademark "New Balance" was registered by Yangjiang Youlian Shoes Company, New Balance's former mainland manufacturer.

But unexpectedly, the new name still encountered the problem of "duplicate names". After trial, the court found that New Balance's affiliated company (New Balance Company) had requested the Trademark Office to reject Zhou Lelun's application for registration of the "New Balance" trademark in December 2007, but it was not accepted. This shows that New Balance is fully aware of the registration status of the "Balun" and "New Balance" trademarks, but still chooses to use "New Balance" for promotion.

Baidu Encyclopedia - New Balance

People's Daily Online - NB lost the lawsuit and lost its Chinese name "New Balance" again to a domestic brand