In just a few years, Xiaomi has grown from a small technology company to a technology giant with a valuation of hundreds of billions. The black technology behind it is the core of its success.
Xiaomi's trouble is getting bigger and bigger. The drama of Xiaomi and others "tearing each other" is frequently exposed. Here, the trademark infringement of "Lei Jun Electric Appliances" is sued, which is similar to "Xiaomi Life". ...
The parties to this dispute are Xiaomi Company and Zhongshan Tong Mo Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (Company A).
Since its establishment, Xiaomi Company has not only actively expanded its business, but also vigorously built a trademark system. Now Xiaomi Company has submitted thousands of trademark applications.
Company A submitted the registered trademark number. 10224020 (the trademark involved) was approved to be used in rice cookers, water heaters and other commodities after 20 1 1.
20 16 Company prominently uses the "Xiaomi Life" logo in its commodities, business premises, websites and other places. He also submitted nearly 100 trademark registration applications, many of which are similar to Xiaomi's "Xiaomi" and "Zhimi" trademarks.
Trademark number. 10224020 "Xiaomi Life" became an obstacle to the trademark layout of Xiaomi Company, which led to the rejection of several trademarks of Xiaomi Company because they were found to be similar to this trademark.
20 17 10, Xiaomi filed a request for invalidation of the trademarkNo. 10224020 on the grounds that Company A maliciously registered the trademark, and was later ruled by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to declare "Xiaomi Life" invalid.
Company A refused to accept it and filed a lawsuit in Beijing Intellectual Property Court, and the lawsuit request was rejected.
Subsequently, Company A transferred the trademark to a rice electric appliance company in Guangdong, and later changed its name to Zhongshan Fire Life Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (Company B). Company B appealed to the Beijing High Court and was rejected.
After the invalidation was successful, Xiaomi Company sued Company A (the defendant company) for infringement of its exclusive right to use trademarks and unfair competition on October 20110, demanding compensation of 50 million yuan.
The Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province made a first-instance judgment on this case, and Xiaomi Company won the case in an all-round way!
The court of first instance supported Xiaomi Company's well-known trademark claim, and held that Xiaomi Company's "Xiaomi" trademark and Xiaomi mobile phone put 400,000 mobile phones into the market and entered the hands of consumers in a short period of time, which has formed a high popularity, attention and influence.
Therefore, the trademark number 82282 1 1 was a well-known trademark when Company A applied to register the trademark "Xiaomi Life".
Therefore, the first-instance judgment: the plaintiff's "Xiaomi" trademark constitutes a well-known trademark, and the defendant's behavior violates the plaintiff's exclusive right to use the trademark and constitutes unfair competition. The infringement is obviously malicious and the circumstances are extremely bad, so punitive damages should be applied.
The court of first instance ordered the defendant to stop the infringement immediately, and compensated the plaintiff for economic losses of 50 million yuan and reasonable expenses of 4 1000 yuan.
Company A refused to accept the appeal and went to Jiangsu High Court, which made a final judgment: dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment!
The Higher People's Court of Jiangsu Province held that the defendant company continued to publicize and sell the accused infringing goods before the second trial, which was obviously malicious.
When determining the amount of punishment, the court fully considered the defendant company's online sales through a number of e-commerce platforms and stores, the variety and quantity of infringing goods displayed on the webpage, and the large scale of infringement.
The trademark "Xiaomi" is a well-known trademark with high popularity, reputation and market influence. The accused infringing goods were identified as unqualified products by the market supervision department, and some users also reported that the accused infringing goods had certain quality problems.
We often say that there are many people who are popular, and this also applies to corporate brands and trademarks. The brand is big, the trademark is hot, and the market recognition is high, which makes people jealous. In order to obtain short-term benefits, individual companies began to move their minds, rub traffic and hitchhike. ...