Hasbro Successful in Trademark Infringement Case

16 October 2012

Hasbro International and Hasbro, Inc. (collectively referred to as Hasbro) have recently prevailed on their groundbreaking appeal before the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court (GPC) in relation to their trademark infringement case against Guangzhou Xingjie Toy Company (Xingjie), say lawyers at Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong and Beijing, who advised Hasbro.

Xingjie, one of China's major toy manufacturers, was found to be engaging in extensive infringement of Hasbro’s trademarks, including the use of TRANSFORMAX, OPTIMUS PRIME and AUTOBOT on Transformers-lookalike toys since 2007. The infringing toys were on sale all over China, including in major hypermarkets.

The GPC dismissed Xingjie’s appeal and upheld the initial People’s Court ruling that the above acts constitute an infringement of Hasbro’s exclusive trademark rights under Article 52(1) of the Trademark Law. It has ordered, among other things, for Xingjie to pay damages and costs amounting to Rmb160,000 (US$24,700).

The Baker & McKenzie team was led by head of the intellectual property group in Hong Kong and China, LokeKhoon Tan and associate Andrew Sim. Guangdong Shen Jin Niu law firm acted as Hasbro’s local PRC counsel on the litigation.

“We are delighted to have been able to successfully assist Hasbro on its ongoing efforts to fight infringers in relation to the production and distribution of Transformers toys in China,” said Tan. “The judgement is quite timely for Hasbro as it is due to launch the sequel to the highly successful Transformers movie series, i.e. Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, this summer.”

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