“A Little Sweet Tea” Compensates 480,000 for Being Like “A Little Tea”

Because “A Little Sweet Tea” used store signs, packaging, indoor decoration and others similar to “A Little Tea”’s, “A Little Tea” sued “A Little Sweet Tea”’s operator, Guangzhou Future Catering Management Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Future Company”) for trademark infringement and unfair competition to the court. Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court recently concluded the case and decided that Future Company had constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition, and was ordered to compensate 480,000 Yuan.

In 2017, Rooted Restaurant Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Rooted Company) found that the store signs, commodity packaging, indoor decoration and others used by Future Company’s “A Little Sweet Tea” milk tea shop were very similar to its milk tea brand “A Little Tea”’s. Then it commissioned agent Wang Mou to start collecting evidence.

Rooted Company believed that Future Company’s acts had infringed its exclusive right of registered trademark involved in the case, and filed a lawsuit to the People’s Court of Huangpu District, Guangzhou City, demanding that Future Company destroy all the decorations, brochures, advertisements and other items that use the same or similar logo as the “1点点” (A Little Tea) trademark, and compensate 2 million of losses incurred as a result of the infringement and 55,000 Yuan of reasonable fee for safeguarding rights.

At the first instance, the People’s Court of Huangpu District held that Future Company’s actions had infringed upon Rooted Company’s exclusive right to use registered trademark and constituted unfair competition, and ordered Future Company to compensate 480,000 Yuan. Future Company later appealed.

Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court heard the appeal and confirmed the first instance judgment.

October 16, 2019

Source: xkb.com.cn

Photo from: 699pic.com