The Guangdong High Court recently concluded a trademark infringement and unfair competition lawsuit between the appellants Guangdong Weipeng Electric Co., Ltd. ("Guangdong Weipen"), an individual Ji, an individual Li, and others for their disputes with the appellee Robert Bosch Co., Ltd. ("Bosch") and Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd. ("Bosch China"). The court held that the defendants should immediately stop trademark infringement and cancel the domain name www.bocseh.cn, and compensate Bosch and Bosch China for RMB 1 million (USD138,000).
In this case, the accused infringing mark "BOCSEH" ("Disputed Mark") when compared with Bosch's "BOSCH" mark with reg. no G675705 ("Cited Mark"), the letter composition, pronunciation, and overall appearance are very similar, except for the addition of an English letter "E." Guangdong Weipeng used the Disputed Mark on identical or similar goods as the goods approved for use of the Cited Mark may easily cause the relevant public to mistakenly believe that the two marks are from the same market entity's series of trademarks or are somehow related, causing confusion and misidentification of the source of the goods, and constituting trademark infringement of Bosch and Bosch China. Guangdong Weipeng used the slogan "Bosch Technology Realizes Dreams in Chinese" on the certificates of products and on the special dealer plates issued. The "Bosch in Chinese" logo is identical with the "Bosch in Chinese" registration of Bosch and Bosch China. The marks are identical and the class of goods used are identical or similar, which can easily lead to confusion and misunderstanding. Therefore, Guangdong Weipeng's use constitutes trademark infringement of the "Bosch" mark with reg. no. 546309.
Guangdong Weipeng uses a domain name whose main part is "bocseh" and uses it to promote products and conduct transactions. The main part of this domain name constituted similar to Bosch's Cited Mark and infringed upon Bosch and Bosch China's trademark rights.
Guangdong Weipeng appealed and claimed that its Disputed Mark was used after approval, so the accused behavior did not constitute an infringement of the trademark rights of Bosch and Bosch China. In this regard, this court believes that the evidence in this case shows that when Guangdong Bosch Company, the predecessor of Guangdong Weiping, obtained the "BOCSEH" mark with reg. no. 12140329 in 2016, Bosch and Bosch China Company's registered trademarks "BOCSH" and "Bosch in Chinese" already has a high reputation in China. As a business entity in the household appliance industry, Guangdong Weipeng should be aware of the existence of Bosch and Bosch China's said marks, but it still applied for the accused logo and uses it in its operations. Therefore, it can be inferred that when Guangdong Weipeng obtained the Disputed Mark, it had obvious subjective malice to take advantage of the goodwill of Bosch and Bosch China. Therefore, even if the Disputed Mark was approved and registered, Guangdong Weipeng's use still constitutes trademark infringement of the Cited Mark.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
