Fuyang Co., Ltd. ("Fuyang") is the owner of the "BELLE" mark with reg. no. 1815147, the "BELLE in Chinese" mark with reg. no. 3086374, and the "BELLE" mark with reg. no. 37518850 (collectively as "Cited Marks"). The Cited Marks are all approved for "shoes" related goods in Class 25. Xinbaili Shoes (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. ("Xinbaili") and Lirong Shoes (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. ("Lirong") are legally authorized by Fuyang to file a lawsuit in their own name for infringement of the Cited Marks and unfair competition, and to pursue relevant infringement liabilities.
Xinbaili and Lirong found through investigation that in February
2021, a Wenzhou e-commerce company ("Wenzhou Company")
used the "BELLE" and "BELLE in Chinese" marks
on their Douyin account named "Australian Belle Official
Flagship Store" without authorization. In July 2021, Liu
obtained the "
" mark with reg.
no. 5925271 that was approved for use on goods such as
"shoes" in Class 25. From April 15, 2021 to May 26, 2022,
Liu registered several individual business names, including
"Wezhou City Lucheng District Huibu Shoes" and used them
to register and operate multiple accounts on Douyin, including
"Australian Belle Official Flagship Store" and
"Abao's Strictly Selected Women's Shoes." Liu
sold shoes bearing "
" and "AOZHOUBELLE" on these
accounts. Xinbaili and Lirong sued Wenzhou Company and Liu to the
Wenzhou Intermediate Court based on trademark infringement and
unfair competition with a request to order the Wenzhou Company, Liu
to immediately stop infringement and eliminate any impacts, Liu to
compensate their loss of RMB 44.8 million (USD 6.19 million),
punitive damages of RMB 89.6 million (USD 12.37 million), and
reasonable expenses of RMB 189,960 (USD 26,233).
The Wenzhou Intermediate Court held that: Wenzhou Company and
Liu used the logo similar to the Cited Marks without authorization,
which constituted trademark infringement. In view of the fact that
the alleged infringement constituted trademark infringement, it is
no longer necessary to repeat the analysis on whether the same
behavior constituted unfair competition. Regarding Liu's claim
that he was the owner of the "
" mark and that it was legitimate to use
the alleged infringing logo because the said mark was a combination
of "Australia Belle in Chinese" and
"AOZHOUBAILI". However, "AOZHOUBAILI" was
replaced with "AOZHOUBELLE" in actual use, it showed that
Liu had a strong subjective intention to infringe, which was
difficult to be justified. Therefore, the court did not accept this
defense. Because the online store in question had stopped selling
the alleged infringing goods, the plaintiff's request to stop
the infringement was not supported. The request for Wenzhou Company
and Liu to eliminate the impact and Liu to compensate for the loss
in the form of one-time punitive damages was supported. In summary,
the Wenzhou Intermediate Court ruled that Liu should compensate for
economic losses (including reasonable expenses) of RMB 22.1
million, the Wenzhou Company and Liu should publish a statement to
eliminate any impact.
Liu appealed to the Zhejiang High Court, but the appeal was dismissed and the lower court's judgement was affirmed.
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