Recently, some media publicly reported that Beijing Miantian Textile Co., Ltd. sued Muji for defamation and unfair competition. The Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing publicly heard the case online on April 25, but did not pronounce a verdict in court.

Judge Cui Shulei of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of Chaoyang District People’s Court of Beijing pointed out that whether Japan’s MUJI constitutes commercial defamation against Beijing Cotton Field Company, the most important thing is to return to the commercial defamation provisions in the Anti-Unfair Competition Law definition. ?

It is understood that this case is a continuation of the trademark dispute between the two parties. In a previous trademark dispute case, the defendant Muji Japan lost the case due to alleged infringement of Muji’s Beijing-registered trademark rights. The court once ruled that Japan's MUJI should stop infringing the registered trademark rights of Beijing Miantian Company and Beijing MUJI, and issue a statement to eliminate the impact of the infringement. However, the defendant used the word "squat" in the statement. Whether the word has the connotation of commercial libel has become one of the focuses of debate between the two parties.

The cause of the incident can be traced back to 20 years ago. In 2005, MUJI's Good Product Plan, MUJI's parent company in Japan, entered China for the first time, but MUJI's trademark was registered as early as 2000 and then transferred to Beijing Cotton Textile Co., Ltd. Currently, Beijing Cotton Textile Co., Ltd. is known as? MUJI Natural Textile Factory has opened many stores in Beijing for the brand.

Since 2001, Liangpin Co., Ltd. has filed objections to the registration of the trademark involved, but ultimately lost the case. It can only use the English word MUJI. It is necessary to stop infringing the registered trademark rights of Beijing Miantian Company and Beijing MUJI, issue a statement to eliminate the impact of the infringement, and compensate for economic losses of 500,000 yuan.

Doesn’t China’s Good Product Engineering have a registered trademark? Of course! In mainland China, the MUJI trademark has been registered in almost all goods and service categories of the MUJI plan, but product categories such as fabrics, towels and bedspreads have been ignored in trademark registration.

However, this oversight made Beijing Miantian Textile Co., Ltd. the first to register the "MUJI" trademark in this category. The court's decision is indeed reasonable. Whoever registers the trademark first will own it.

What do you think about this?