Unitalen represents MONTAGUT in trademark lawsuit against Mengjiao
May 19, 2004Unitalen represents MONTAGUT in trademark lawsuit against Mengjiao
On May 18, 2004 the Second Beijing Intermediate People’s Court sat to hear a case filed by the French company Bonneterie Cevenole SARL against Guangzhou Mengjiao Boy Trade Company, Guangzhou Mengjiao Boy Garments Company and Beijing Sanli City Mall Real Estate Exploitation Company for illegal use of trademark and unfair competition.
According to the plaintiff’s authorized legal representative, Unitalen Attorneys at Law, the French Bonneterie Cevenole is lawfully established and registered under the French Law. It has registered the MONTAGUT brand with the Chinese Trademark Office, and its exclusive rights to the MONTAGUT wording and “flower” logo are still in effect. Products bearing this brand are very popular among Chinese people and are very well sold all over China.
However, Mengjiao Boy Trade Company and Mengjiao Boy Garments Company in their capacity of the so-called MONTAGUT (Hong Kong) Development Company’s exclusive Chinese agent and dealer have been selling the so-called MONTAGUT garments in Guangzhou, Beijing and other cities. They have ostensively used the MONTAGUT wording and their own registered “flower” logo, which is very much similar to the genuine “flower” logo. Their products packing, tagging and falsification warning notices etc imitated those of the original products.
Furthermore, the plaintiff’s French name has been used in the falsification warning notices of the defendant’s fake products. The defendant’s action constitutes infringement of the plaintiff’s exclusive trademark property right, together with unfair competition. Thus, the court was appealed to pronounce on the three companies’ immediate cease of exclusive trademark property rights infringement and unfairly competitive imitation of packing, and on Mengjiao Boy Trade and Guangzhou Mengjiao Boy Garments’ payment of 500 000 RMB worth of damages.
In Mengjiao Boy Trade’s own words, the company has never used the registered trademark of Bonneterie Cevenole or any other trademarks similar to it, thus remaining free of liability for trademark property rights infringement. The property violation arguments stated by the French company are in no reference to it; it is a completely different legal entity from Mengjiao Boy Garments and is no exclusive agent or dealer of MONTAGUT Hong Kong’s. Therefore, Mengjiao Boy Garments and Sanli Real Estate have to individually receive the legal effects of their actions.
Mengjiao Boy Garments think they have never ostensively used the wording on the products they sell. Their own suppliers are MONTAGUT Hong Kong and Mengjiao Boy Trade. The products they offer bear the respective wording of the provider and have never had MONTAGUT as a brand name. Thus, they do not violate the respective regulations of the Trademark Law, and insist on having performed no trademark infringement or unfair competition actions. They appealed to the court to reject the French company’s accusations. However, Mengjiao Boy Garments failed to deliver any relevant arguments in proof of their allegations.
According to Sanli Real Estate, in its capacity of a Garments Shopping Mall exploiter, it has no relation to the dispute and should respectively bear no responsibility.
The French Company has only through its China-based dealers’ feedback realized that fake products with its brand name are circulating in large amounts on the Chinese market, thus influencing the sales and the reputation of its own products. Thereby, Unitalen Attorneys at Law, a famous Chinese provider of intellectual property rights protection services, was entrusted to carry out the litigation. As a result of the in-depth research and evidencing, Unitalen’s attorneys collected sufficient information on MONTAGUT trademark infringement and unfair competition. MONTAGUT finally defeated Mengjiao at court, which serves as a good example of protecting the brand name’s good reputation and its consumers’ interests.
