A Rising Respect for IP Rights

Yuanchao Ma of Co-effort Law Firm draws lessons from the most groundbreaking 2016 trademark, patent, internet and unfair competition disputes, and offers advice for foreign brands on IP management in China. 

1. What have been some breakthrough trademark cases in the past year?

On April 20, 2016, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court rendered an appellate decision in the “微信” (WeChat) trademark registration dispute case, upholding the judgment at first instance but changing the grounds for why registration should be approved. The appeal court held that, where Item (8) of the first paragraph of Article 10 of the PRC Trademark Law does not provide otherwise, no entity may use or register a mark that has “other adverse effects” as a trademark. However, the opposed trademark lacked distinctive features for the approved service items. The evidence submitted by Trunkbow Asia Pacific was insufficient to show that the opposed trademark had been used and to prove a stable connection between the two marks, and required the opposing mark to serve the function of identifying and differentiating the two services. Therefore, it was unable to prove that the opposed trademark's basis of registration was provided by the second paragraph of Article 11 of the Trademark Law. Accordingly, the court ruled that the registration of the opposed trademark should not be approved.