Recently, lawyer Zhang Hong and lawyer Xu Jin from Beijing Janlea Law Firm represented Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou Pharmaceutical) in its trademark dispute administrative litigation against the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and Hong (first name withheld). The case was concluded at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, and the claim of our client, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, was supported by the court.

After the trial, the court ruled as follows: The evidence submitted by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical during the evaluation and litigation procedures, including certification of honor, manufacturing, sales, promotion, marketing and protection all support each other. It was able to prove that before the application date of the opposed trademark, the company had done long-term, extensive, and substantial application and marketing on products including non-alcohol drinks and received particular protection of related institutions. The brand possessed extremely high popularity and influence among the relevant public and constituted the Well-Known Trademark described in article 13 paragraph 2 of the Trademark Law. “Wanglaoji” was not a fixed word in the Chinese language and had strong distinctiveness. The opposed trademark was formed by the Chinese word “Wanglaoji” and its phonetic transcription, which covered completely the textual part of the cited Well-Known Trademark. Furthermore, the third party had no proof that he or she had any lawful right to “Wanglaoji”. Therefore, the opposed trademark constituted a plagiarism and imitation of the cited trademark. The final ruling ordered the repeal of the original adjudication of the trademark opposition review and demanded new trademark opposition review adjudication on the trademark “Wanglaoji” from the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board.

The case was a typical case anti-cross-category diminishing of Well-Known Trademark. Through the cooperation between Janlea’s legal team and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, a preemptive registration of Wanglaoji trademark made in bad faith was stopped and the purity of the brand Wanglaoji was maintained.