Who Owns Trademark Xinbailun.docVIP

Who Owns Trademark Xinbailun Recently， under the ruling of the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court， Xinbailun Trading （China） Co Ltd， an affiliate of U.S. sneaker maker New Balance， was ordered to compensate Chinese businessman named Zhou Lelun 98 million yuan for infringing his“Xinbailun” trademark rights. In addition to coughing up such a huge amount of money for the compensation， Xinbailun Trading was required to stop sell-ing products in the Chinese market under the trademark of “Xinbailun” and publicly apologize for the harm caused to Zhou. Chinese character “Xin”means “New” in English while“Bailun” is pronounced similarly to “Balance”. The Eight-year-long Battle Established in Boston in 1906， New Balance has a history of one hundred years and is billed as one of the world’s top four sneaker brands. The sportswear giant prides itself on its brand value. But in China， the giant was forced to stop using the name of “Xinbailun” to promote its products. By far， on New Balance’s Chi- nese official website， as well as online stores in T and JD.com， two leading ecommerce providers， the name of “Xinbailun” had been eliminated. In China， it is common to see companies aiming at getting huge compensation to squat the Chinese character mark of foreign brands before the latter made their first foray into the market. Four years ago， Apple lost the legal battle with Hong Kong-based Proview Technology Co Ltd over the iPad trademark in China. Proview registered the trademark back in 2000. However， the case is differ-ent. In June 2004 when Zhou applied to register the trademark of“Xinbailun” in Class 25 for his sportswear company， the brand of New Balance was little known in the country. In fact， as early as in 1996， Zhou registered the trademark of “Bailun”. According to records on the website of the China Trademark Office， among four applications for “Xinbailun” trademark， only the one submitted by Zhou had got approval from trademark authority and it is still vali