photo from: bjcourt

The infringement case of Flying Fairy Moutai was settled recently. In 2018, the Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd.(Kweichow Moutai) sued the head company and the manufacturing company of Flying Fairy Moutai for infringing its trademark. Kweichow Moutai required the both companies to stop infringement and claimed for a compensation of about 3 million Yuan.

In March, 2017, Kweichow Moutai found that some e-commerce platform was selling  the  Flying Fairy Moutai. By comparing the product withits own one, Kweichow Moutai claimed that the Flying Fairy Moutai  had similar names, packages and images of flying fairies to those of its popular brand of the Flying Fairy Kweichow Moutai, which may cause confusion among costumers. In April, 2018, the head company, the manufacturing company and the e-commerce platform were all prosecuted by Kweichow Moutai with a compensation of about 3 million Yuan.

The final judgement report published by Beijing Court Judgement Information Net shows that the Xicheng District People’s Court of Beijing(the first-instance court) once ruled that  Guizhou Flying Fairy Liquor Co., Ltd. and Guizhou Renhuai Maotai Town Quanshun Liquor Co., Ltd. constituted infringement to the exclusive right of the registered trademark of Kweichow Moutai by using similar images  and titles. The compensation amounted to 1 million Yuan. The both accused companies for the first instance were dissatisfied with the result and appealed to Beijing Intellectual Property Court against Kweichow Moutai.

In the process of the final trial, the Court agreed that  the focus should be whether the trademarks of the infringed products exceeded the permission of registered trademarks, whether the  product infringed the exclusive right of the trademark owned by the plaintiff and whether the compensation amount and expenditure decided in  the first trial was reasonable.

The final verdict, it was considered by Beijing Intellectual Property Court that there was no sufficient factual and legal evidence of appellant grounds by Guizhou Flying Fairy Liquor Co., Ltd. and Guizhou Renhuai Maotai Town Quanshun Liquor Co., Ltd., in thus the appeal didn’t hold. The court rejected the appeal and maintained the verdict given by the first-instance court for its legal judgement procedures, clear fact-finding and right applicable laws.

According to the final verdict, Guizhou Flying Fairy Liquor Co., Ltd. and Guizhou Renhuai Maotai Town Quanshun Liquor Co., Ltd. shall pay Kweichow Moutai 1 million Yuan in compensation for economic loss and reasonable expenditure.

April 1, 2019

Source: jwview.com