Moutai sued Pinduoduo for trademark infringement

Recently, according to the announcement of the People's Court of Xuhui District, Shanghai, the case of China Kweichow Moutai Distillery (Group) Co., Ltd. suing Shanghai Xumeng Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Pinduoduo) will be heard on February 20. The cause of the case is trademark infringement.

It is understood that this lawsuit is directed at an unknown wine. This case is a trademark dispute between Moutai Group and the defendants of two manufacturers in Moutai Town. The main complaint is that the two distilleries used others' logos without authorization, which caused the public to mistakenly believe that the Baijiu product has a cooperative relationship or other relationship with Ji Keliang, honorary chairman of Kweichow Moutai Distillery, or even with Moutai Group, thus causing confusion and misrecognition.

Maotai, with a market value of trillion yuan, has launched a comprehensive crackdown on counterfeits in recent years. It is understood that Moutai Group spends more than 200 million yuan annually on anti-counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting. The infringement of counterfeit and inferior products has seriously affected its brand image. As the king of Baijiu, Moutai's high premium mainly comes from the brand image that has been operated for many years, and the infringement of counterfeit and shoddy products has seriously affected the brand image. The focus of the fight against counterfeits is naturally the major e-commerce platforms.

The trademark dispute in Maotai is not the first time

It is understood that this is not the first time that Pinduoduo has been sued by Maotai.

According to the judgment published on the China Judgment Document Network, in 2019, the Zunyi Intermediate People's Court made a civil judgment of first instance on the case of Kweichow Moutai Liquor Co., Ltd. suing Pinduoduo and several businesses on the platform suspected of selling "fake Maotai". The fake sellers immediately stopped infringing on many trademarks of "Maotai" and Pinduoduoduo immediately stopped providing platform sales services for them.

The judgment showed that more than 50 businesses sold the "fake Maotai" products involved on the Pinduoduo platform. Among them, "Maotai VIP Liquor", "Feitian Reception Liquor" and "Maotai Internal Liquor Supply" are similar to the packaging of "Kweichow Moutai Liquor" produced by Maotai Liquor Co., Ltd., and illegally use "Feitian", "MAOTAI" and other well-known trademarks of Maotai.

At present, the search for "Moutai" on Pinduoduo's official website shows that there are many types of Maotai liquor on the platform, including "Maotai Feitian 43", "Feitian Maotai 53", "Kweichow Moutai Little Cute Gift Box", etc. In this regard, the relevant people in Kweichow Moutai responded that the company did not supply Moutai, and the dealers did not dare to supply Pinduoduo.

How can enterprises effectively prevent trademark infringement?

As the "front door" of enterprises to the outside world, trademarks are an important part of the reasons for consumers to buy. The well-known trademarks are "rubbed" with similar trademarks or trademarks are frequently registered.

The dispute over the "old Ganma" in Guiyang and Hunan, the dispute over Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji, the battle over Tesla's trademark, the scrambled registration of the "Baochuan digging wild vegetables" trademark, and the trademark infringement of the "Tea Yan Yue Se" lawsuit against the "Tea Yan Guan Se" trademark have continued. How can an infringed trademark enterprise effectively solve this problem?

1. Pay close attention to the trademark registration, and timely raise an objection or dispute if it is found that the trademark applied for registration by others is the same or similar to its own trademark;

2. Strengthen the management of trademark marks. Some trademark registrants have stolen and lost trademark marks due to improper storage;

3. Registration of defense trademarks and joint trademarks is to prevent others from using their trademarks on different types of goods.

The fight against counterfeiting of Maotai trademark is still going on. It will ring the alarm bell for enterprises to self-protection and risk prevention of trademarks again, do a good job of real-time supervision of trademarks, patents and copyrights, avoid unnecessary losses, and timely safeguard legal rights and interests!

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