Recently, our firm won the first instance of an administrative litigation case for invalidation of an invention patent, in which it is ruled that the invention patent should be comp...
Introduction In the chemical field, it is difficult to seek invalidation of a patent claiming to have achieved unexpected technical effect. This case provides a strategy for success...
The Administrative Litigation Case Regarding Trademark Invalidation Linda Liu & Partners Represented is Included in the 2020 Annual Report on Intellectual Property of the Supreme People’s Court
On Apr. 27, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court (Hereinafter referred to as SPC) released the 2020 Annual Report on Intellectual Property of the Supreme People’s Court. The Report contains 55 typical cases selected from the cases relating to intellectual property concluded by the SPC and 63 law application issues with guiding significance summarized thereof by the SPC, demonstrating the trail thought and judgment method of the SPC when handling novel, difficult and complex intellectual property cases.
The administrative litigation case concerning trademark invalidation [(2020) SPC Administrative Retrial No.3522] handled by our firm with Xiamen Xiangqiu Daily Chemistry Co., Ltd being the retrial petitioner, CNIPA being the opposing party and Fumakilla Limited being the third person of the first instance is included in the Report as one of the 55 selected typical cases.
Linda Liu & Partners participated in the administrative litigation case concerning trademark invalidation brought by the plaintiff Xiamen Xiangqiu Daily Chemistry Co., Ltd against the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (now known as CNIPA) on behalf of the third person Fumakilla Limited.
Trademark at issue Prior copyright
In this case, Linda Liu & Partners, entrusted by our client Fumakilla Limited, filed an invalidation request against the trademark owned by Xiamen Xiangqiu Daily Chemistry Co., Ltd on the ground of the infringement of prior copyright. CNIPA announced the trademark at issue invalidated. Being unsatisfied with the invalidation decision, Xiamen Xiangqiu Daily Chemistry Co., Ltd filed an administration lawsuit to challenge the decision. We participated in the proceedings as the third party representing Fumakilla Limited and refuted every fact and reason presented by the opposing party. Beijing Intellectual Property Court (the court of first instance) sided with our arguments, and dismissed the claims of the plaintiff, which was affirmed by Beijing Higher People's Court (the court of the second instance). Since then, the opposing party appealed to the Supreme People's Court for retrial on the grounds that the expiration of the copyright constituted the change of circumstances, but the SPC rejected the retrial petition in August, 2020.
The SPC specified in this case that trademark application should not damage the prior right of others. And the time node for judging the existence of prior right should be the date of the approval of trademark registration at the latest.
The petitioner’s claim that the date of the approval of trademark registration should be interpreted as the whole administrative and judicial phase of judging whether the registration should be approved is not acceptable.
