The Beijing IPR Court recently entered the first-instance judgment on a seven-year trademark dispute lodged by Dream Works Animation SKG, Inc against a Chinese natural person surnamed Hu. Beijing IPR Court approved that Hu's registered trademark KUNG FU PANDA has infringed Dream Works’ trademark rights of its film name and character name of“功夫熊猫KUNG FU PANDA”。
Dated back to June 6, 2008, the computer-animated action comedy martial arts film KUNG FU PANDA presented its first public performance. Shortly, the film gained worldwide popularity. 20 days after the premiere day, a natural person from Shandong province filed the No. 6806482 KUNG FU PANDA registration application on Classs 12, products of the steering wheel cover and vehicle seat cover. This provoked Dream Works’ disapproval.
Dream Works challenged the trademark in dispute and requested the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board （TRAB） under SAIC to revoke the mark. However, Dream Works failed. Disgruntled Dream Works brought TRAB to the Beijing Higher People's court. In the second-instance decision, the court ruled in favor of Dream Works in 2015. In October that year, TRAB decided to revoked Hu's KUNG FU PANDA trademark registration.
Hu later filed an administrative litigation against TRAB to Beijing IPR Court.
Beijing IPR Court held that evidences which show the character of“功夫熊猫KUNG FU PANDA”had gained specified directivity, congruity and high business value for Dream works after long-term publicity and it should be protected by the law. Comparing Hu's trademark with Dream works’ animated movie, the consumers would be confused as the two are almost the same in spelling, pronunciation and Chinese translation, which would cause damage to Dream works’ trading opportunities and business values from the film.
Based on these mentioned above, the court held that the trademark in dispute had infringed Dream Works’ interests and rights, Hu's requests should be rejected. （by Wang Guohao）
(Translator Jiang Xu Editor Yan Ru)
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