Recently, China’s highest court ruled in favour of a lower court’s decision to award 100 million yuan to an Assa Abloy unit, PANPAN Door Co., Ltd, in a trademark infringement case against Sichuan Xinpenghui Door Co., LTD (previously known as Xin PANPAN Door Co., LTD) and others.

The SPC rejected the defendant-appellants’ requests to cancel the lower court’s judgment and award them reasonable economic losses and legal fees incurred in the first and second instances.

In the final judgment, the SPC found that trademarks involved in the case are well-known and should be protected accordingly. The defendant-appellants’ use of the accused infringing “Xin PANPAN” and “Panda” marks is of malicious intent and constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition. 

The SPC upheld the lower court’s decision to order the defendant-appellants to stop the infringement and eliminate the repercussions, and compensate fivefold punitive damages amounted to 95 million yuan for trademark infringement, 5 million Yuan for unfair competition, and 65,000 yuan for reasonable costs.

The case is Sichuan Xinpenghui Door Co., LTD, Chengdu Guyang Door Factory, Zhou XX, defendant-appellants v. PANPAN Door Co., Ltd, Plaintiff-appellee in the Supreme People's Court of the People’s Republic of China.

For PANPAN Door Co., Ltd: Zhao Kefeng, Lv Pei, GEN Law Firm 

For Sichuan Xinpenghui Door Co., LTD, Chengdu Guyang Door Factory, Zhou XX: Zhang Hao, Li Jing, Chen Yanrong, Tiantong Law Firm