Our client Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (Sanyo) is a famous Japanese electric appliance company. Its trademarks “三洋” and “SANYO” were recognized well-known trademarks in China.

In 2012, Sanyo requested to invalidate the trademark “SANYONG & device” No. 6794375 registered by Cixi Chaoshi Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (Chaoshi Company) in 2010, claiming the trademark was an imitation of its well-known cited marks “SANYO” and “SANYANG & device” out of bad faith, and they are confusingly similar. Moreover, to support our claim, we advised the client to collect effective evidence to prove the well-known status of the cited mark and the bad faith of Chaoshi Company.

The TRAB made a decision by the end of 2013 that the disputed mark was similar to the cited mark, and the designated goods “washing machine, sewing machine, etc.” of the disputed mark was closely relevant to the designated goods “electric washing machine, power plants, etc.” of the cited marks in function, use, sales channels, etc. And considering the high reputation of the trademark “SANYANG” on electric appliance, the TRAB admitted our claims and invalidated the disputed mark.