Zhong Lun Law Firm represented Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) in an unfair competition lawsuit against two domestic companies (the Appellants) for their relevant false promotion activities in relation to RUSH RICH wines. On April 23, 2020, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court publicly pronounced the second-instance judgement of this case, where the Court maintained the first instance judgment. This public pronouncement is a part of series of publicity activities for “4.26" World Intellectual Property Day.

Previously, the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court rendered the first-instance judgment for this case, holding that the Appellants’ activities, including introduction of its RUSH RICH wine as “the most famous and largest winery in Australia", “the symbol for Australian wines", etc., constitute false allegations. Accordingly, the first-instance court ordered the Appellants to stop their unfair competition activities by making false allegations, supported TWE’s claim for damage compensation in full for an amount of CNY 1.4 million and reasonable expenses for an amount of CNY 0.6 million, and ordered the Appellants to publish an announcement on the magazine China Wine and the Appellants’ WeChat public account “奔富酒园" to eliminate the adverse impact on TWE. The Appellants were unsatisfied with the first instance judgement and filed an appeal with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. After examination, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court maintained the first instance judgment.

TWE is an ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) listed company with dozens of world-renowned wine brands including Penfolds/奔富. After entering the Chinese market, Penfolds/奔富wines were widely welcomed by the consumers and became one of the most popular wine brands in China, which attracted many hijackers. Zhong Lun has been providing legal services to TWE for years. After discovering the Appellants’ activities, TWE entrusted Zhong Lun Law Firm to file several lawsuits against the Appellants based on trademark infringement, copyright infringement and unfair competition. Meanwhile, the Appellants also filed several lawsuits against TWE, claiming that TWE’s relevant statements and other activities constitute false allegation, business defamation, etc.

This series of lawsuits has complicated backgrounds. These cases are intertwined with both the administrative cases for trademark application and prosecution and the legal actions taken by TWE against the Appellants in the Australia. After meticulously sorting out the context of each case, Zhong Lun lawyers formulated comprehensive litigation strategies and defended the other side’s challenges. After the examination of the relevant courts, Zhong Lun Law Firm not only won a favorable final judgment for this unfair competition lawsuit, but also won favorable first instance judgments in the trademark infringement lawsuit, copyright infringement lawsuit, as well as the unfair competition lawsuits filed by the Appellants against TWE, which are all pending in the second instance proceeding.

The above cases are of great significance for TWE to secure its Penfolds/奔富 brand. These are big steps in TWE’s way to clear the market for its brand. It also highlights the firm attitude of the people's court to provide better protection to intellectual property rights and to maintain the rule of law.

This case was handled by Zhong Lun team led by Jimmy Huang and Hope Yang, the partners of Intellectual Property Department, and the team members include the associate Alicia MA.