Original title: “Banyueqing” trademark of traditional Chinese medicine was infringed and awarded 200,000 yuan in compensation. It is the exclusive right of registered trademark enjoyed by Henan Zhongjing Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhongjing Pharmaceutical), but Zhenpingtong Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shitong Company) also uses “banyue” on the same traditional Chinese medicine products. Clear” logo. Recently, the Higher People’s Court of Henan Province found in the final judgment that it was not inappropriate for Shitong Company to compensate Zhongjing Pharmaceutical for the amount of losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection of 200,000 yuan in the first instance, and thus dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment.
Zhongjing Pharmaceutical found that Shitong Company had used the “Banyueqing” logo on the same traditional Chinese medicine products, and sued the Intermediate People of Nanyang City on the grounds that Shitong Company and others had infringed its trademark rights. court. The two parties reached a settlement agreement in the lawsuit. After Shitong agreed to stop the infringement and compensate for the losses, Zhongjing Pharmaceutical applied to the court to withdraw the lawsuit.
On April 6, 2021, Zhongjing Pharmaceutical discovered Shitong’s alleged infringing products on a sales website, and filed a civil lawsuit with the Nanyang Intermediate Court. The Nanyang Intermediate People’s Court held that the alleged infringement of Shitong Company violated the exclusive right of Zhongjing Pharmaceutical to the trademark involved, and ordered Shitong Company to stop the infringement and compensate 200,000 yuan for losses. Shitong Company refused to accept it and appealed to the Henan High Court.
The second instance of the Henan High Court held that the accused infringing goods and the goods approved for use by the trademark involved belonged to the same type of goods. The “Banyueqing” logo used on the accused infringing goods is identical or similar to the Chinese characters and pronunciations in the trademark involved, which may easily lead to confusion and misunderstanding of the source of the goods by the relevant consumers, and mistake the accused infringing goods as Zhongjing Pharmaceuticals Therefore, the accused infringing goods infringed the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of Zhongjing Pharmaceutical. After the mediation and withdrawal of the lawsuit, Shitong violated the principle of honesty and trustworthiness and infringed again. The court of first instance comprehensively considered the popularity of the trademark involved in the region, the circumstances, scope, duration, subjective fault and rectification of the infringement, and combined with the level of regional economic development. and other factors, it is not inappropriate to order Shitong to compensate Zhongjing Pharmaceutical for the amount of losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection of 200,000 yuan.
Song Wangxing, vice-president and presiding judge of the Third Civil Division of the Henan Higher People’s Court, said that Henan is one of the important birthplaces of traditional Chinese medicine in my country. important role. Zhongjing Pharmaceutical’s registered trademarks such as “Banyueqing” are “Famous Trademarks in Henan Province”.
Song Wangxing said that in this case, Shitong, the trademark involved, had reached an agreement with Zhongjing Pharmaceutical in the previous lawsuit. After Zhongjing Pharmaceuticals withdrew the lawsuit, Shitong Company violated the agreement between the two parties and infringed the trademark rights of Zhongjing Pharmaceuticals. The subjective maliciousness was obvious. Therefore, the court applied punitive damages and ruled that Shitong Company should stop the infringement and compensate 20 The loss of 10,000 yuan demonstrates the strength of the people’s court in protecting the intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine, guides the whole society to form a consensus on respecting the intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine, and provides a good judicial guarantee for the development and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine.
Source: Legal Daily
