Case Summary

The series of "Renhe" trademarks owned by Renhe (Group) Development Co., Ltd. are of high popularity in the pharmaceutical field. The defendant, Anhui Tianzhiran Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. used the trademark "Hong Kong Renhe" on the nutritional supplement products. This act infringed upon the exclusive right to use the trademark of Renhe Group, and its sales were relatively large. Chispo represented Renhe Group in bringing a lawsuit to the Haidian Court. The court ruled that the defendant should compensate Renhe Group for economic losses and reasonable expenses of RMB350,000.

Lawyer's Comment

The difficulty of this case lies in that there are many categories of the infringing products and most of their goods items are non-standardized. So it is necessary to accurately analyze the categories and groups in the classification of goods to which the infringing products belong in order to accurately claim the relevant trademark rights.The lawyer determined the classification of the infringing products by comprehensive analysis based on the name, raw materials, functions and uses of the infringing products, which was finally supported by the court.In addition, the Defendants' use of the trademark "Hong Kong Renhe" was based on the name "Renhe (Group) Development Co., Ltd." which was registered in Hong Kong by Mr.Lee and later licensed the name “Hong Kong Renhe” to the Defendant for use in China. As for the registration of companies in Hong Kong, the requirements on examination and verification of the trade name are relaxed, there is no lack of infringers who intend to obtain a seemingly legitimate right foundation in this way, but in fact their acts still constitute infringement.