Beijing IP Court Imposes RMB10 Million Damages on Trademark Infringer
Beijing Intellectual Property Court (BIPC) recently closed the trademark infringement case of Meichao Group Co., Ltd. v. Beijing Xiujie Xinxing Building Materials Co., Ltd. et al. This case sees the highest amount of damages ever awarded among the civil trademark infringement cases tried by BIPC since its inception two years ago.
In its ruling, BIPC deemed that the defendant Beijing Xiujie's unauthorised and conspicuous use on its products of the words "墙锢", a reputed mark for products of adhesives and glue for industrial purposes, had infringed the trademark rights of the plaintiff Meichao Group. In addition, the defendant's refusal to tender the required evidence was found to be unjustifiable given the fact that the plaintiff had duly performed its burden of proof. The plaintiff's claim of infringement was thus ascertained, and the infringer was ordered to pay damages of RMB10 million as compensation for economic loss and reasonable expenses.
The ruling featured the application of rules of evidence and determination of damages by reference to the market value of the IP asset concerned, which reflected the court's attempt to reinforce the protection of IP under existing legal and evidence-based framework.
