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Zhong Lun Law Firm Represented THE COLOR RUN before the Supreme People’s Court and Won Favorable Judgment in A Trademark Invalidation Case
Zhong Lun Law Firm Represented THE COLOR RUN before the Supreme People’s Court and Won Favorable Judgment in A Trademark Invalidation Case
Recently, the Supreme People’s Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC) rendered its retrial judgment regarding the administrative lawsuit for invalidation action against the trademark “THE COLOR RUN", which was registered by TCR IP HOLDINGS, LLC (TCR). The SPC overturned the second instance judgement rendered by Beijing High People’s Court, the first instance judgement rendered by Beijing IP Court and the invalidation decision issued by the previous Trademark Review and Adjudication Board of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and ordered the current China National Intellectual Property Administration to re-issue a new decision.
Zhong Lun Law Firm provided full legal services to TCR throughout the above invalidation action case and its related series of cases. The team is led by Jimmy Huang and Hope Yang, partners of Intellectual Property Department, and the team members include the associates Brenda Jin and Alicia Ma.
THE COLOR RUN, also known as the Happiest 5K on the Planet, is a unique event that celebrates healthiness, happiness, and individuality. Now the largest running series in the world, THE COLOR RUN has been experienced by over 8 million runners worldwide in 50+ countries. In January 2015, TCR registered the trademark “THE COLOR RUN" on the services organization of sports competitions etc. In December 2015, a company in Guangdong Province filed invalidation action against the trademark “THE COLOR RUN", based on its pre-emptive registration for the trademark “健康彩色跑&device" (cited mark). To clear the cited mark, entrusted by TCR, Zhong Lun handled the administrative lawsuits for invalidation action against the cited mark. By collecting a large amount of evidence and developing appropriate strategies, we won in two instances of administrative lawsuits. The Court determined that TCR’s trademark “THE COLOR RUN" was priorly used and obtained certain influence, and that the cited mark should be invalidated.
With more than 5 years unremitting endeavor, Zhong Lun finally helped TCR maintain the registration of “THE COLOR RUN" on core services “organization of sports competitions etc.", which is significant for TCR in hosting “THE COLOR RUN" events and protecting “THE COLOR RUN" brand in China.