Recently, the Zhejiang Higher People’s Court concluded a trademark infringement and unfair competition case between Siemens AG and Xinchang Ximenzi Household Appliances Co., Ltd., Shaoxing Bangdai Electrical Appliances Co., Ltd. and Bingjun Wu. This case involved the first application of “judicial hierarchy analysis” in judicial practice. The appellate court, after detailed findings of fact concerning both the asserted rights and the alleged infringement, and after taking these facts into comprehensive consideration, determined that the facts concerning the asserted rights that would influence the amount of statutory damages were at a very high level, and that the facts concerning the alleged infringement were at a relatively high level; consequently, subject to the amount of statutory damages prescribed in Article 63 of the P.R.C. Trademark Law, the amount of damages should be determined within the section that corresponds to a very high level.      

   Through the exercise of its inherent discretionary powers, the Court set the amount of statutory damages at 1,000,000 RMB.

   Judicial hierarchy analysis is a new idea for determining the amount of statutory damages. It was proposed by the Zhejiang Higher Court based on an economic analysis of law and its own trial practice experience.

   Via www.zhichanli.com