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Nike wins trademark infringement case in China |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
 Nike has won the case against two Chinese shoemakers and a
Shanghai-based French supermarket over the trademark infringement of its Air Jordan
logos. The court ordered the supermarket and the shoemakers
to pay damages totaling 350,000 yuan (~ $46,000 U.S.).
According to Xinhua, Nike employees succeeded in buying four pairs of sports shoes with identical logos to its copyrighted Air Jordan Logo of Michael Jordan as pictured above in three outlets of Auchan in Shanghai.
The shoes were manufactured by Jinjiang Longzhibu Shoes Company and Jinjiang
Kangwei Shoes Company in east China's Fujian Province.
In February, Nike sent letters through its lawyer ordering Auchan to cease
sales, but the shoes remained on the shelves. Nike then sued the supermarket and shoemakers in two separate cases in May,
demanding them to cease manufacturing and selling the shoes, apologize, and pay
one million yuan (~ $131,000 U.S.) in compensation.
The court ruled that the two shoemakers illegally copied Nike's registered
trademarks and the Auchan supermarket had also infringed upon Nike's rights by
selling the counterfeits.
Last month, German sportswear maker Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport won a similar
lawsuit against a supermarket in Shanghai which sold fake Puma athletics shoes. It seems as though China is starting to enforce other people's intellectual property rights as much as their own.
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