Recently, Canon Inc., a global leading manufacturer of imagery products, optical products and office automation products, prevailed in a first-instance trademark lawsuit against a natural person surnamed Cai.
In 1933, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory (former Canon Corporation) was established, and named its camera products as “Kwanon”, which was the first brand name of Canon Inc. In 1930s, “Kwanon” changed the company name into “Canon” and the global official Chinese version was “佳能”.
In November 2005, the natural person Cai filed No. 4980404 trademark application for “Canon 佳能” on Class 6 covering goods of metal clips and metal culverts etc.
Canon Inc. challenged Cai's application during the opposition period and claimed that the opposed trademark was a malicious copy of Canon’s prior registered trademarks. Canon also claimed that the No. 282217 trademark of “Canon” and No. 1911239 trademark of “佳能” were filed by Canon Inc. in 1986 and 2000 respectively, and have been registered on Class 6 for goods of steel plates，metal doors and windows, metal culverts and safes etc. Currently, the two marks are still in force.
Based on the evidence provided by Canon Inc. the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (TRAB) rejected Cai's application.
Then Cai appealed the case before Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court, claiming that the opposed mark and cited marks were not used on similar products and the cited marks had not actually been commercially used on products of safes and steel plates. Therefore, the registration of the opposed mark would not cause confusion among the consumers.
After examination, the court held that the opposed mark was similar with Canon's registered marks and finally rejected Cai's appeal.
