Li Ning's trademark was copied,

Appeal and lose?

01

Li Ning lost the first instance

Li Ning Company is a sports brand founded by "Gymnastics Prince" Li Ning in 1990. Since the establishment of the brand, Li Ning has attached great importance to the layout of trademarks. Since its listing in Hong Kong in 2004, Li Ning has developed rapidly, mainly selling sports shoes and sportswear, and has been fighting against plagiarism or infringement of trademarks.

As early as 2020, the sports shoes sold by a company called ruthless love shoes and clothing company were printed with a logo highly similar to Li Ning's trademark, which means infringing Li Ning's trademark. After purchasing the products of the company, Li Ning company found that the trademark pattern of the company was exactly the same as its own trademark, only with the effect of mirror turning. The trademark right of the infringing trademark belongs to Xiamen Zhenmu Trading Co., Ltd. Li Ning believed that the logo was almost the same as its own trademark pattern, which completely constituted an infringement, and took the company to court for compensation of 60000 yuan.

Ruthless love shoes and clothing companies think they are not at fault. The company argued that its trademark is a legal trademark applied for registration according to law, which is very different from the trademark of Li Ning Company and does not constitute infringement.

The court held that the trademark on the sports shoes of ruthless love shoes and clothing company is the same as the trademark applied for registration by Xiamen Zhenmu Trading Co., Ltd. and has nothing to do with Li Ning's trademark right. However, the footwear goods have particularity and can be divided into left and right feet. Therefore, the trademark image processing logo infringes the trademark right of Zhenmu company and has nothing to do with Li Ning company.

At the end of the first instance, Li Ning lost the lawsuit.

02

Against the judgment, Li Ning company sued for the second time

Of course, Li Ning company still did not give up and continued to appeal to the higher people's Court of Fujian Province.

Li Ning believes that no matter whether the trademark has been successfully registered or not, it should not be similar to the existing trademark. It cannot mirror, flip or stretch any existing trademark pattern, which will confuse consumers and think that the two trademarks are similar and may be the same product, so they are bought by mistake or deceived. Therefore, the behavior of ruthless love shoes and clothing company is an infringement.

The court held that the trademark pattern used by ruthless love shoes and clothing company is indeed similar to that of Li Ning, and the line outline is basically the same, which may cause confusion and confusion among the public and constitute a similar trademark.

Finally, the court ruled that the first instance judgment was revoked. The trademark of ruthless love shoes and clothing company was similar to that of Li Ning company, which constituted infringement, and compensated Li Ning company 20000 yuan.

03

Trademark layout should be done well

In this case, ruthless love shoes and clothing company not only infringed the rights and interests of Li Ning's trademark, but also changed the trademark style applied for registration by Xiamen Zhenmu Trading Co., Ltd., which was illegal use, resulting in infringement of the trademarks of the two companies.

Therefore, a trademark is still very important for a company. Enterprises or individuals must layout the trademark in advance. Famous brand enterprises like Li Ning will have people with ulterior motives to rub the heat and want to get benefits from it. Therefore, enterprises should improve their awareness of intellectual property protection, carry out trademark layout in advance, and prevent trademark rights from being infringed, affecting enterprise reputation and causing huge losses.