Recently, lawyer Zhang Hong and lawyer Li Shuhua of Beijing Janlea Law Firm represented Coca-Cola Company in the “Fenda” trademark opposition review administration litigation case and won in the first-instance trial.

The third party, Xu Lixin applied for the registration of the opposed trademark “Fenda” on products including coffee-flavor seasonings and chocolate drinks. Coca-Cola cited the trademark “Fanta” it registered on products including coffee, coffee drinks and chocolate drinks and filed an opposition.

The series of cases were trialed at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, and the first-instance ruling held that, although the opposed trademark “Fenda”, which was in Chinese, had certain differences with the cited trademark 1 “Fanta”, which was in English in terms of sound, shape and meaning, in the consideration of the appearance of “Fenda” and “Fanta” in the List of National Specifically Protected Trademarks as a pair, the two trademarks had already formulated a matching relation in the eyes of the public in products such as non-alcohol beverages and mineral water, before the application date of the opposed trademark. In addition, the products, including coffee-flavor seasonings and chocolate drinks that are associated the opposed trademark were equivalent to products including “coffee and chocolate drinks” associated with the cited trademark 1 in terms of manufacturing, means of sales, functions, uses and consumer populations. Therefore, two trademarks constituted similar trademarks on similar products. 

Besides, since the third party failed to prove that the opposed trademark and the trademarks including “Kendeji”, “Axiangpo” and “Xitiecheng” he applied had creative sources and he had eliminated the chance of coincidence in the applications, considering the reputation of the mentioned trademarks, the related applications of the third party were believe to be made in bad faith and to harm the common rights of the relevant public. This was a violation of article 10 paragraph 1 item 8 in the Trademark Law and, therefore, the Court repealed the adjudications of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.