SKECHERS U.S.A., INC. II ("Skechers") sued individuals
Xiong, Mao, Xiao and others for trademark infringement. The court
found that Skechers is the owner of "
," "
," and "Skechers in Chinese"
marks on sneakers related goods. All marks are valid. Xiong, Mao,
and Xiao have been producing and selling shoes counterfeiting the
registered trademarks of Sketchers since 2017. Xiong, as the main
person in charge, opened the factory, was responsible for material
procurement, and contacted potential customers. Mao and Xiao were
in charge of the daily production matters of the factory and were
responsible for the production and packaging of the counterfeited
products. On May 20, 2021, the public security authorities arrested
Mao, Xiao, and another individual Cai at the scene, and seized a
total of 14,052 pairs of counterfeit Skechers sneakers, valued at
up to RMB 8 million (USD1.12 million). On May 21 of the same year,
the public security authorities again seized a total of 10,470
pairs of counterfeit Skechers sneakers by the four defendants,
valued at nearly RMB 6 million (USD841,000). The Defendants Xiong,
Mao, Xiao, and Cai produced and sold sneakers with counterfeit
"SKECHERS" mark, which constituted the crime of
counterfeiting a registered trademark, and also infringed the
Skechers' trademark right, and should be held liable for civil
damages in accordance with the law. In this case, it has been
ascertained that from 2017 to 2021, the Defendants produced and
shipped a total of 321,211 pairs of counterfeit Skechers sneakers,
which were valued between RMB 19 million to 305 million (USD 2.6
million to 42 million) according to the shipping price of RMB 60-95
per pair, and the total infringing profits of the four Defendants
were calculated at a total amount of not less than RMB 2 million
(USD279,000) based on the level of the actual profit margin of
approximately 10% as confessed by the four Defendants. Due to the
defendants' infringement lasted for a long time, production,
and sales scale, with subjective infringement of intent and
infringement of the seriousness of the circumstances, Skechers
claimed that Xiong's damage should be tripled as punitive
damages, the court supported Skechers' claim and ordered Xiong
to pay for economic loss of RMB 5 million (USD699,291) and
reasonable costs of RMB 162,504 (USD22,727). Mao and Xiao should be
jointly responsible for RMB 3662,504 of Xiong's liability.
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