Ten-year "Xie Baina" dispute
The intellectual property case of "Xie Baina" spanned as long as 1 years. On May 8, 21, Changyu Company applied to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for trademark registration of "Jiebaina", and in April 22, the Trademark Office issued a registration certificate. But this move was immediately opposed by other companies in the industry. Opponents believe that Cabernet Sauvignon is the common name of wine, the main raw material for brewing wine, and the public resource of the industry, so no enterprise has the right to possess it privately.
On July 1th, 22, the State Trademark Office recognized Cabernet as the name of the raw material variety of red wine, and revoked the registered trademark. Changyu Company refused to accept this, and the case entered a long administrative review.
in June, 28, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ruled that Cabernet Sauvignon was not a generic name for grape varieties or products used by the industry, but a wine trademark owned by Changyu Group. In this regard, more than a dozen wine producers such as Great Wall, Veyron and Dynasty protested, and then filed a lawsuit with the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court.
on December 3, 29, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court revoked the ruling on the trademark dispute of "Jiebaina", and the judgment concluded that although the ruling procedure of No.5115 made by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board was not improper, COFCO, COFCO Yantai Company, Dynasty Company and Changyu Group all submitted a large amount of evidence that might affect the substantive ruling result of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board in the proceedings, which would be detrimental to the legitimate rights and interests of both parties. Accordingly, ruling No.5115 should be revoked, and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board should make a new ruling on the basis of considering the new evidence submitted by the parties. Subsequently, COFCO and other plaintiffs appealed to the Beijing High Court.
On June 17, 21, the Beijing High Court made a final judgment on the case: the appeal was dismissed and the original judgment was upheld. That is, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board is required to make a new ruling based on the above evidence.
On the issue that the State Trademark Office identified "Cabernet" as the name of the raw material variety of red wine, Changyu said that "Cabernet" was a wine brand founded by Changyu Company as early as 193s. "It is a brand, not a variety. In China, there has never been a wine variety called" Cabernet ",nor one or several grape variety series for brewing wine called" Cabernet ".
however, the opposing enterprises issued rebuttal evidence that the trademark patterns in the historical evidence of 193s issued by Changyu were all composed of a five-pointed star and the words "Cabernet" in French, not the Chinese words "Cabernet". These data just show that in the approval documents of the government departments at that time, the registered trademark was "five-pointed star" and the name "Jiebaina" did not appear.
With a paper announcement made by Changyu today, the 1-year-old trademark battle for Jiebaina has finally come to an end.
Changyu shares "Cabernet" with 6 companies
According to Changyu's announcement, the evaluation results of this case are as follows: 1. Changyu Group is still the legal holder of No.1748888 "Cabernet" trademark, that is, the ownership of "Cabernet" trademark still belongs to Changyu Group. 2. After mediation by the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Changyu Group allowed six companies including COFCO Liquor Co., Ltd., COFCO Great Wall Wine (Yantai) Co., Ltd., COFCO Huaxia Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd., COFCO Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd., Sino-French Joint Venture Dynasty Grape Brewing Co., Ltd. and Shandong Weilong Wine Co., Ltd. to use the trademark "Cabernet" for free and indefinitely. 3. Except for the company and the above six enterprises licensed by Changyu Group, other wine production and operation enterprises shall not use the trademark "Cabernet Sauvignon" again.
In addition, the settlement agreement between the two parties also stipulates that Changyu Group shall not cancel the trademark license, and COFCO, COFCO Yantai Company, Dynasty and other companies shall not dispute Changyu Group's "Jiebaina" trademark in the future.
at the end of the announcement, Zhang Yu said that since its listing in 1997, Zhang Yu has been using the trademark "Cabernet" to produce and sell wine. In 29, the sales revenue of products using the trademark "Cabernet" accounted for about one-third of the company's main business income in that year. After the end of this case, only seven wine enterprises including Changyu will use the trademark "Cabernet" to produce and sell wine.
after solving the problem of the right to use the trademark "Jiebaina", Changyu A will quickly face another problem. On December 4th, 21, Changyu A issued a rectification plan in response to a series of irregularities detected by Shandong Securities Regulatory Bureau of China Securities Regulatory Commission. This rectification announcement pointed out that after the dispute over the ownership of the trademark "Jiebaina" of Changyu Group is resolved, the listed company will negotiate with Changyu Group and take appropriate measures to solve the ownership of trademarks such as "Changyu" as soon as possible, so as to safeguard the integrity of the assets of listed companies.