Recently, Lawyer Zhang Hong and lawyer Li Shuhua of Beijing Janlea Law Firm represented the Coca-Cola Co., Ltd. in the “Qoo” trademark dispute administrative litigation and won in the final trial.

The appellant (plaintiff of the original trial), Walter Watson Ltd., on the grounds that the trademark in dispute, “Qoo” constitute as a similar trademark used on same or similar products with its cited trademark “Smart Qool”, submitted the claim to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce of China to repeal the application for registration of the trademark in dispute. 

This case was trialed, twice, by Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court and Beijing Higher People’s Court, respectively. The final judgment ruled that the trademark in dispute, “QOO”, was a meaningless phrase. Although the word “Smart” in the cited trademark “Smart Qool” functioned as modifying word to the word “Qool”, it did not mean that this word was a significant part of the cited trademark. Furthermore, the word “Smart” had a meaning for “richly flavored”, which was not well known by the relevant public, and thus the cited trademark should be compared as a whole with the trademark in dispute. There were distinguishable differences between the two trademarks in terms of pronunciation and visualization. Therefore, the adjudication of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board was affirmed.