On April 13, 2016, the Beijing Higher People’s Court published its list of the “Top 10 Landmark Cases” and the “Top 10 Innovative Cases” for the year 2015. These cases were all heard by courts in Beijing, and they all concerned judicial protection of IP rights. The selection was based on the society-wide influence of the cases. The selections also highlighted the establishment of adjudication rules, and they reflected the judicial purpose of enhancing the protection of IP rights. The “UL” case, in which attorneys at law from W&B, Jun Yang, Yizhou Liu and Mengfei Yu represented the defendant, was named a “Top 10 Innovative Case”.

The Beijing Higher People’s Court provided its comments on the case, noting that it involved a typical trademark infringement dispute. Although the court applied the old Trademark Law to the trial, it upheld the spirit of the new Trademark Law and took into full consideration elements such as the appearance of the mark, the actual use of the disputed trademark, whether or not the defendant intended to “take a free ride”, and the degree of recognition by the general public. The court finally ruled that the allegedly infringing mark and the disputed trademark should not be deemed similar under the Trademark Law and that their co-existence would not easily cause confusion. Consequently, the court found that the defendant did not commit the alleged infringement. To some extent, this case dealt with the issues of malicious trademark squatting and lack of credibility. This case unified the legal and social effects of these issues, thereby allowing parties to regulate their own conduct and take guidance for standard business operations within the entire commercial market.

W&B specializes in professional IP -related legal services. Many cases that we have been involved in have received recognition by being named, for example, “China’s Top 100 Landmark Cases in IP Right Judicial Protection for 2009” by the Supreme People’s Court, “Shanghai’s Top 10 Landmark Copyright Cases for 2010” by the Shanghai Copyright Bureau, “Chinese Courts’ Top 50 Landmark Cases for IP Rights Judicial Protection for 2012” by the Supreme People’s Court and the “Shanghai’s Top 10 Landmark Copyright Cases for 2014”. In the coming years W&B will continue to forge ahead and constantly strive for excellence to vigorously defend its clients’ legitimate rights and interests, in order to contribute to the healthy development of the Chinese IP industry.