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Fashion leader wins trademark court case
By Liu Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-26 06:35

Three domestic companies were ordered to pay compensation of 770,000 yuan (US$93,000)to the French firm Bonneterie Cevenole SARL for trademark infringement over the name Montagut.

The judgment made yesterday by the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court is reportedly the third time domestic courts have ruled to safeguard the famous fashion brand.

The three defendants were the Bonneterie Garment (Shenzhen) Company, the Yiwu Xinyipai Garment Company from Zhejiang Province and a retail sales businessman Li Zupeng, from Beijing.

Presiding Judge Liu Wei said the Xinyipai company registered the trademark Minglicheng in 2000.

"The logo of Minglicheng is very similar to that of Montagut."

Two years later, it transferred the trademark to a Hong Kong-based enterprise who used Montagut as its company name.

Last year the High Court in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ordered the firm to stop using the name Montagut and the Minglicheng trademark.

A year earlier it had authorized the Bonneterie Garment (Shenzhen) company to use the trademark, said sources with the court.

Later in 2003, the Bonneterie (Shenzhen) company authorized Xinyipai to use the trademark of Minglicheng.

"We can tell from the strange and complicated procedure that the defendants were intentionally violating the trademark of Montagut," said the judge.

"The defendants did not use the registered trademark of Minglicheng on clothing, but used a trademark more like the logo of Montagut instead. So the trademark rights of the plaintiff were violated," she said.

The three defendants were also ordered to cease violating the trademark of Montagut.

The Shenzhen-based company was barred from continuing to use Bonneterie on its clothing products.

(China Daily 04/26/2005 page3)



 
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