Recently, Fujian High People's Court made a final decision over Siemens's trademark and unfair competition allegation against Shenzhen Oudi Investment Co., Ltd.,Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi Electric Co., Ltd., Haitian Yongming Lighting Appliance Distribution Outlet of Chikan District, Zhanjiang City and an individual surnamed Zhang.
Siemens was established in Germany in 1897. The "西门子" and "SIEMENS" trademarks held by Siemens have been well-known among the public after being used for many years. Shenzhen Oudi Company applied for registration of No. 16787619 "SIEIV" trademark in June 2016 and No. 16787675 "IENS" trademark （trademarks in question） and February 2017, respectively. Haitian Electric Distribution Outlet sold the goods carrying the logo of "SIEIVIENS" combining the two trademarks in question. Fuzhou Zhongshan Siemens was established by Zhang on June 21, 2016, engaging in design and production of household appliances, electrical apparatuses, and switchgears.
In September 2017, Chikan Branch of the Administration for Industry and Commerce of Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province （Chikan Branch） conducted an investigation on the sales of socket products with the "SIEIVIENS" logo by Haitian. On April 28, 2018, Chikan branch issued an rectification order based on the investigation results, recognizing Haitian's trademark infringement and ordering cease of sales of the goods in question. After the issuance of the said rectification order, Siemens sued the above businesses at Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of Fujian Province.
Fuzhou Intermediate Court held that based on the existing evidence and relevant facts, Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi had matter-of-factly took advantage of Siemens' reputation to gain a competitive edge and misled consumers into thinking that the company's products were relevant to or had a specific association with Siemens, which constituted unfair competition; Haitian can prove that they obtain the alleged infringing goods by legal means and can state the provider clearly, and therefore it should not be liable for damages. Accordingly, the court ordered Fuzhou Zhongshan Siemens to indemnify Siemens 300,000 yuan in damages.
Siemens refused to eat the first-instance judgment and appealed to Fujian High People's Court, claiming that Shenzhen Oudi and Haitian should also assume their shares of legal liabilities.
Fujian High held that in this case, the "SIEIVIENS" logo on the alleged infringing products sold by Haitian was basically the same as the registered trademark "SIEMENS" when in actual use. The registered trademark "SIEMENS" has a high reputation in the field of electrical equipment, and Haitian, as a business specializing in electrical appliances, did not execute necessary checks on whether the purchased infringing products with the "SIEIVIENS" logo had been authorized by Siemens, which could not be determined that there is goodwill, so Haitian should compensate; Zhang, who is one of the shareholders of Shenzhen Oudi, is also the legal representative of Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi. Based on the existing evidence and facts, it is sufficient to presume that Shenzhen Oudi and Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi had infrigement contact and constitute a joint infringement. In addition, Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi's sales volume and scale of infringing products was relatively large, the infringement had lasted for an protracted period of time, and the consequences of infringement were very serious. Invoking the third paragraph of Article 63 of the Trademark Law, Fuzhou High ordered Shenzhen Oudi and Fuzhou Zhongshan Ximenzi to jointly compensate Siemens 1 million yuan in damages and another 300,000 yuan from Fuzhou Zhongshan for its act of unfair competition.（by Jiang Xu）
（Editor Jiang Shuo）
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