The court ruled that "Bai Xiao T" is a product name with a certain influence - Zhongbei helps enterprises successfully protect their rights
Introduction: "Product name with certain influence" is a right stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the current "Anti-Unfair Competition Law". Before the revision of this law in 2017 year, it was called "well-known trademark's unique name". In theory and practice, corresponding to this name is the generic name of the product, which can be freely used by anyone. Therefore, once it is identified as a "product name with certain influence", the right holder has the right to prohibit others from using the same or similar marks without authorization.
Recently, Chaoan District People's Court of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, ruled that Thumb Wardrobe (Zhejiang) Clothing Technology Co., Ltd.'s use of "Bai Xiao T " constitutes a "product name with certain influence" as referred to in Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law", and ordered the defendant to stop infringement, compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses. This judgment has now taken effect and been executed.
This case is a typical case of unfair competition infringing on others' commercial marks. The plaintiff, Thumb Wardrobe, was established in 2016 year 1 month, headquartered in Ningbo E-commerce Economic Innovation Park, mainly engaged in clothing design, research and development, sales, etc., is an Internet + clothing company.
"Bai Xiao T " is an important brand created by the company in 2019 year 1 month, positioned as "Let technology redefine clothing", "Under the minimalist style, innovate brand products to solve users' dressing pain points, while meeting the attributes of high quality and low price". Since its listing, it has successfully created a hit product T shirt, and has also deployed a complete matrix of basic men's wear products, and has formed a hit logic centered on explicit selling points (waterproof, antifouling, oil-proof, collar anti-curling, ultra-thin thermal underwear, extremely warm winter coats, etc.) and saturated investment. The defendant opened a shop on a certain e-commerce platform, selling many "Bai Xiao T " men's clothing, not only directly using "Bai Xiao T " as the product name, but also directly using the plaintiff's models and product pictures, special T mark
, special white characters and slogans in the product pictures, and even using the plaintiff's product inspection report, while the products purchased by notarization have no tags, only the collar has
mark. The above behaviors are easy to mislead people into thinking that they are the plaintiff's products, and are easy to cause confusion among the relevant public, which falls under the circumstances stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph (1), etc., of the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law".
The court's judgment supported the plaintiff Thumb Wardrobe's litigation request, and determined that the product name "Thumb Bai Xiao" T " and "Bai Xiao T " used by the plaintiff have high brand awareness and have won certain honors through extensive publicity, and are well-known to the relevant public. The product name "Thumb Bai Xiao T " and "Bai Xiao T " has a certain influence, and the defendant's sales behavior constitutes unfair competition, and should bear legal liabilities such as stopping infringement and compensating for losses according to law.
In this case, Zhongbei entrusted lawyer Nie Fei from Beishang Law Firm. Based on the detailed evidence sorting and rigorous legal argumentation in the early stage, and after sufficient pre-trial preparation, the legal team successfully helped the client obtain judicial recognition of the "product name with certain influence" and corresponding compensation for rights protection, effectively assisting the client's brand maintenance work.
