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29 January 2021
On January 5, 2020, Hanesbrands, a leading global marketer of branded everyday basic apparel, announced that it has received a favourable judgment from the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court in a trademark infringement case involving its Champion brand in China.
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“Protection of well-known trademarks has always been within the legal framework in China and runs on a case-by-case principle,” says Bin Zhang, an attorney-at-law at CCPIT Patent & Trademark Law Office in Beijing. “International rules on protection of well-known trademarks are mainly the Paris Convention and TRIPS agreement. Our country has already successfully and officially joined both the Paris Convention and TRIPS agreement and does not make any reservations about the terms of the well-known trademark protection, so we have an obligation to fulfill relevant provision, to give special legal protection to the well-known trademarks of member states. It is also the requirements of accession to the WTO and for participating in the international market competition. In the meantime, the effective protection of well-known trademark is not only related to the interests of trademark holders, but to the interests of consumers as well.”
“To establish fair competition and increase the confidence of international investors, it is crucially important to fight for well-known trademark infringement,” says Zhang.
Jon Ram, president of global activewear at Hanesbrands echoes by calling the case a significant victory for the Champion brand. “We will continue to aggressively defend our intellectual property in China and around the world.”
The case involved the production and distribution of counterfeit Champion products and the operation of unauthorized Champion retail outlets by six defendants. The defendants, Hurricane, Chengda, Rainbow Wing, Fuxun, Yunma and Wu Zhanghao, were ordered to immediately cease all infringement of the Champion brand and to pay fines totaling more than US$600,000.
Johnny Chan
