Dear Khun Anuwat,
Reference is made to the subject trademark matter.
We regret to inform you that the First Intermediate Court of Beijing has issued the decision on this litigation case but such decision is unfavorable to our side. The Court’s judgment can be summarized as follows:
1) In this case, the goods covered by the opposed mark are identical with or similar to those of the your two referenced marks but the marks of the two parties have certain differences in respect of the word composition, appearance and appellation. As such, the co-existence of the opposed mark and your prior marks with respect to the similar goods is unlikely to cause confusion among the consumers. Therefore, the opposed mark and your prior marks do not constitute similar marks on the similar goods.
2) Besides, the plaintiff (your company) did not submit enough evidence to prove that before the filing of the opposed mark (April 10, 2009), the plaintiff had used its trademarks with the goods in Class 16 in China until acquiring the reputation among the general public. Therefore, the registration of the opposed mark does not violate the Article 31 of the China Trademark Law.
3) In addition, there is no evidence that can prove that the registration of the opposed mark would cause unhealthy social influences so the opposed mark does not violate the Article 10.1.8 of the China Trademark Law.
As a consequence, the earlier decision of the China Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) is based on clear facts, legitimate procedures and proper applicable provisions, thus the Court has decided to uphold the TRAB’s decision dismissing the plaintiff’s request to reject the registration for the opposed mark.
In this case, the First Intermediate Court of Beijing’s judgment can be appealed before the Beijing High People's Court no later than October 16, 2015 and this deadline is not extendible. In case no appeal is filed within the said deadline, the opposed mark will be further granted registration. Our associate however requests that instruction be sent to them before October 13, 2015 for further preparation at their end (if any).
For your information, the Beijing High People's Court is the final step of judicial proceeding in usual procedure. There however exists some rare cases of retrial procedure at the Supreme Court which is quite extraordinary. Only a few complaints will be accepted by the Supreme Court and no more than 10% of the previous judgments would be reversed.
A copy of the Court’s decision is attached for your reference.