Recently, lawyer Zachary Zhang and lawyer Shuhua Li represented Estee Lauder Co., Ltd’s “Xin Ya Shi Lan” trademark dispute administrative litigation and succeeded in the final trial. 

The appellant (the plaintiff of the original trial), Guangzhou Baiyun Ya Shi Lan Cosmetics Factory, on the grounds that the trademarks of the two parties were obviously different in pronunciation, shape and meaning, and that the disputed trademark was a proper and lawful use of its trade name right, appealed to Beijing Higher People’s Court for cancelation of the original ruling. 

After the trial at Beijing Higher People’s Court, the final ruling decided that the disputed trademark, “Xin Ya Shi Lan”, as a textual trademark consisting of four characters as the cited trademark “Ya Shi Lan Dai” did (the Chinese transliteration of Estee Lauder), having three characters the same, visual display that was not practically different, and similar pronunciation, constituted a similar trademark. Under the circumstance that the two trademarks constituted similar trademarks, taking into account of the evidential materials provided by the third party, the disputed trademark would easily cause confusion and misconception among the relevant public when used on products, including cosmetics other than toothpaste, that were the same or the similar products as those designated for the cited trademark. Also, its reason that the disputed trademark was a proper use as trade name was not proposed during the trademark evaluation stage. Therefore, the Court affirmed the ruling of the first-instance court.