DEALS
Zhong Lun Law Firm Represented VINCE, LLC in the Trademark Infringement Lawsuit against A Famous Sportswear Company and Won Case in First Instance Court - 5.95 Million Compensation Fully Supported
Zhong Lun Law Firm Represented VINCE, LLC in the Trademark Infringement Lawsuit against A Famous Sportswear Company and Won Case in First Instance Court - 5.95 Million Compensation Fully Supported
Zhong Lun Law Firm represented the US company VINCE, LLC in a lawsuit against two Defendants including a famous sportswear company for infringing its trademark right to “VINCE". On December 20, 2018, Beijing Haidian District People’s Court rendered the first instance judgment.
The first instance court held that the sportswear company infringed upon VINCE, LLC’s exclusive right to use the trademark “VINCE" by producing and distributing the sportswear bearing the “VINCE" mark and relevant composed marks, and accordingly ruled that the sportswear company should stop its activities infringing upon VINCE, LLC’s trademark rights, publish an announcement on the newspaper China Fashion Weekly to eliminate the adverse impact on VINCE, LLC, and compensate VINCE, LLC’s economic losses and reasonable expense for a total of CNY 5.95 million.
In Mainland China, VINCE LLC owns exclusive right to use the trademark “VINCE" on the goods including clothing, etc. In 2016, it came to VINCE, LLC’s attention that the sportswear company launched VINCE Series sportswear and put it into mass production and distribution. As two sides did not reach an agreement after negotiation, VINCE, LLC entrusted Zhong Lun Law Firm to file a trademark infringement lawsuit before Beijing Haidian District People’s Court.
During the first trial, Zhong Lun lawyers fully argued on behalf of VINCE, LLC and made positive and strong rebuttal against the sportswear company’s defense. On the issue of economic compensation, faced with the fact that it is difficult to determine either the actual losses suffered by the Plaintiff or the benefits acquired by the Defendant from the infringement, Zhong Lun lawyer made full use of the sportswear company’s sales information in related online stores and the Group’s publicly disclosed information, comprehensively analyzed and calculated the profits gained by its infringing activities, and fully explained to the collegial panel regarding the calculation basis, method and conclusion by means of visual statistical chart. After the trial, the first instance court found that two Defendants, including the sportswear company, violated VINCE, LLC’s exclusive right to use the trademark “VINCE", and fully supported VINCE, LLC’s compensation claim from the sportswear company.
This case is typical of the court's application of discretionary damage compensation to determine the amount of compensation above the statutory maximum, when it is difficult to prove specific amount of the defendant's benefits acquired by the infringement, but it can be proved that such amount obviously exceeds the statutory maximum limit of compensation.The case was handled by Zhong Lun team led by Jimmy Huang, a partner of Intellectual Property Department, and the team members include non-equity partner Hope Yang, attorney Fred Zhang and Brenda Jin.