In recent years, with the increasing popularity of entrepreneurship, various brand franchise stores have sprung up one after another.
Recently, the trademark infringement case of the two companies using the trademark "swisse" to attract investment and franchise across the country without authorization has attracted widespread attention.
Former partners go to court
The "Swisse" brand was founded in Melbourne, Australia in the 60s of the last century, and its products sell well in many countries and regions. From 2015 to 2016, H&H Group invested 10.2 billion yuan twice to acquire the Australian health care product brand Swisse.
H&H Group's subsidiaries H&H (China)**hereinafter referred to as H&H Company) and Swisse (Guangzhou) Health Products*** (hereinafter referred to as Swisse Company) are the licensees of the "Swisse" trademark, and are responsible for the commercial promotion and commodity sales of the "Swisse" brand in mainland China.
It is understood that Shiweishi Company had cooperated with Shanghai Xu Drink Company, and agreed that Shanghai Xu Drink Company would use "Swisse" brand products to prepare and promote healthy tea, and then the cooperation was terminated.
However, after the termination of the cooperative relationship with Shiweishi Company, Shanghai Xu Beverage Company and Jianao Company continued to use "Swisse" to carry out the operation, investment promotion, publicity and promotion of tea stores, and "authorized" franchisees to use the "Swisse" trademark on tea stores.
Because they believed that Shanghai Xu Beverage Company and Jianao Company had infringed their exclusive right to use the "Swisse" trademark and carried out acts of unfair competition, H&H Company and Shiweishi Company sued them to the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court, requesting the court to order Shanghai Xu Beverage Company and Jianao Company to stop the infringement and compensate for economic losses and reasonable rights protection costs of 10 million yuan, and claimed that punitive damages of 5 times should be applied based on the infringement profits of the two defendants.
Punitive damages apply
The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court held that the evidence in the case showed that the trademark in question had reached the level of well-known in Class 5 for goods such as "nutritional supplements and vitamin supplements". Under the circumstance that Swisse Company issued several letters and statements, clearly informing Xu Beverage Company and Jianao Company to stop using the disputed trademark, Xu Beverage Company and Jianao Company still divided labor and cooperated, and authorized others to join and open the "Swisse" beverage store, which not only infringed the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of the disputed trademark, but also constituted unfair competition of false publicity.
The reason why this case has attracted great attention in the industry is not only that the trademark involved in the case has a high reputation, but also that the court applied the punitive damages mechanism to fully support the claim of the two plaintiffs of 10 million yuan.
Nowadays, many people want to realize their entrepreneurial dreams by joining. For merchants, it is indeed an effective way to open the market and attract consumers by obtaining authorization to "borrow" the mature trademark brand of large enterprises, but it is worth noting that a one-time authorization is not equal to permanent use, and once the contract is overdue or terminated, it can no longer be used, otherwise it will infringe on the trademark of others.
Having said that, if an enterprise wants to develop and grow, it must have its own brand, and in addition to applying for a registered trademark by itself, it can also obtain a trademark by way of transfer.