Recently, the legal team led by Lily Fu, Senior Partner at NTD Intellectual Property Attorneys (NTD) received a first-instance judgment from the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province in the trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute involving the "Kangwang" trademark on behalf of Bayer Healthcare. The court ruled that the defendant's acts constituted infringement of the plaintiff's trademark rights and unfair competition, and ordered the defendant, a Hangzhou company, to immediately cease all acts of trademark infringement and unfair competition, transfer the disputed domain name to the plaintiff for registration and use, and compensate Bayer Healthcare for economic losses totaling RMB 1.8 million. Relevant affiliated companies of the defendant shall bear joint and several liability for the compensation. 

Case Summary 

In this case, the plaintiff acquired ownership of multiple "Kangwang" trademarks, including the No. 1130744 "Kangwang" trademark, through assignment. Through the long-term and extensive promotion and use by the plaintiff and its affiliated companies, the "Kangwang" trademark has gained a high reputation in mainland China and reached the status of a well-known trademark. The defendant, a Hangzhou company, used a corporate name and domain name highly similar to the plaintiff's "Kangwang" trademark, and promoted hair care products with the "Kangwang" logo on multiple online platforms such as WeChat Official Account and Douyin. Meanwhile, it provided hair and scalp care, cleaning services, and sold hair care products with the "Kangwang" logo in offline stores, which was likely to cause the public to mistake the infringing services and goods as originating from the plaintiff or having a specific connection with it. These acts seriously damaged the plaintiff's brand reputation and market interests. 

The key issues in dispute were: (1) whether recognition of the trademark as well-known was necessary, and if so, whether the trademark had reached the level of being well-known; (2) whether the alleged acts infringed the plaintiff's trademark rights; (3) whether the alleged acts constituted unfair competition; (4) if trademark infringement or unfair competition was established, the issue of the defendant's liability. After trial, the court determined that the infringing services and goods were similar to those for which the disputed trademark was approved for use, so there was no need to determine the trademark as a well-known trademark. The defendant's use of "Kangwang" constituted trademark use for identifying the source of goods. Compared with the disputed trademark, it was identical in words and pronunciation, differing only in font. From the perspective of the average attention of relevant consumers, the similarity was high, which was likely to cause the relevant public to mistake the infringing services and goods as originating from the plaintiff or having a specific connection with it, constituting trademark infringement and unfair competition. The court ordered the defendant to jointly and severally compensate Bayer Healthcare for economic losses of RMB 1.8 million (including reasonable enforcement costs), and relevant affiliated companies of the defendant to bear joint and several liability within the range of RMB 1.5 million. 

Case Significance 

This victory not only strongly safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of Bayer Healthcare, but also vividly demonstrates the professional strength of the NTD legal team. In the face of complex trademark infringement and unfair competition disputes, the NTD team has leveraged its profound legal expertise and precise analysis of IP cases to identify key infringement points, providing solid protection for clients. In the future, NTD will continue to use professionalism as a spear and law as a shield to escort enterprises' intellectual property, unceasingly advancing on the path of protecting innovative achievements and purifying the market environment. 

The attorneys representing this case are attorney Lily Fu and attorney Steve Liu from NTD Intellectual Property Attorneys.

Lily Fu

Ms. Fu has been engaged in legal services such as intellectual property litigation, licensing and strategy consulting, commercial contract disputes, and corporate compliance since 2000 and has handled nearly 6,000 legal cases. She is insightful of the nature of business and adept at providing effective analysis and professional advice from the standpoint of client. Ms. Fu is of an active nature and fond of learning, innovative and strong-minded, and does not give up in the face of challenges and difficulties. She has represented many difficult and complex cases, and has obtained satisfactory results for clients and earned the respect of judges and fellow lawyers. As a team leader, Ms. Fu is willing to share her experience with young colleagues to inspire them to keep a pioneering spirit, blazing new trails. Passionate and committed to her mission, she is an active contributor in a number of industry organizations, providing expertise and support to the development of intellectual property laws and policies worldwide.

Steve Liu

Steve Liu graduated from Northwest University of Politics and Law, and received advanced education in the United Kingdom and earned a LL.M. degree in International Business Law from the Newcastle University Law School. In 2018 Steve Liu joined NTD after graduation for law work in IP field. Steve Liu focuses on intellectual property affirmation, authorization and infringement litigation, anti-unfair competition law compliance and litigation, advertising compliance and consumer rights protection compliance advice, draft and review of civil contract, arbitration and litigation of civil disputes. He has assisted several senior partners to deal with various kinds of legal services for well-known domestic and foreign enterprises, such as IP infringement disputes, IP authorization and confirmation disputes, administrative anti-counterfeiting actions, online infringement complaints, IP assignment and licensing, commercial disputes of enterprises, and enterprise general legal counsel.