Hangzhou intermediate people's court, 7 July 2022
On the 7th of July, Hangzhou intermediate people's court reported on the case it handled between online store Shangpai and Huawei Technologies. The former was founded in2009, and its main business is online digital product sales.
The later has extensive influence in China and even in the world as a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. Its registered trademarks "Huawei" and the corresponding visual logo are also well known.
Shangpai had actively sought connections with Huawei in order to improve the sales volume of the store. In practice, this meant that Shangpai had added the word "Huawei" to the name of mobile PTZ which was sold by its online store, and used the symbols "Huawei" and logo in the product display diagram. At the same time, Shangpai's online store displayed another proprietary symbol of Huawei, albeit with some changes to the number of petals and English characters of Huawei's trademark. In addition, the store also showed consumers false network channel sales authorization from Huawei to create an illusion that the products were related to Huawei, causing misunderstanding among customers. As Huawei believed that the above-mentioned actions by Shangpai constituted trademark infringement, they requested an order to stop the infringement and demanded punitive compensation of 5 million yuan (about 740,000 USD) for economic losses.
In court, the first instance held that the use of "Huawei" (and of the logo) by Shangpai, in the process of selling mobile PTZ in its online store, constituted an infringement of the exclusive right to use the registered trademarks owned by Huawei. Consequently, Shangpai should bear the civil liability to stop the infringement and compensate for the losses.
Moreover, the first instance also held that Shangpai intentionally infringed the trademark right and the circumstances were serious, and they should therefore be liable for punitive damages. Therefore, the court fully supported Huawei's claim for compensation of 5million yuan from Shangpai.
After the first instance judgment, neither party filed an appeal, and the judgment has taken effect.
Further information can be found here. (Chinese)
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