China'S Clothing Industry First Affirms No Infringement Lawsuit

It is understood that it is the first case in the garment manufacturing industry to confirm the case of non infringement as a case.

Suspected export products

Wuxi Ivor is a company specializing in clothing licensing processing business. Over the years, it has been entrusted with orders from South Korea's aive company and Han Heng Ji clothing Limited company.

In January 29, 2010, Wuxi aive declared that she had exported a batch of cotton trousers to pport to Korea.

In February 10, 2010, Wuxi aive suddenly received the "notification of detention of suspected infringing goods" made by Shanghai customs, saying that there was a limited company in Hongkong named crocodile shirt. It believed that the export of cotton woven ladies' jeans by Wuxi Ivor at Shanghai gaigaoqiao port customs office was suspected to infringe its exclusive right to register "CROCODILE" (registered crocodile).

According to the notification, if Wuxi AIF believes that the goods seized by customs do not infringe the exclusive rights of crocodile company's "CROCODILE" trademark, they should submit written instructions to the customs and attach relevant evidence.

At the same time, the customs asked the crocodile company to apply to the people's court to take measures to stop the infringement or property preservation before November 8, 2010, and to send the relevant notice of assistance to the people's court to the customs.

The goods will be released after customs expires.

When the crocodile company failed to submit an application to the court, the Shanghai customs then released the jeans involved.

But it is such a mess that the goods processed by Wuxi Ivor can not be exported to Korea on time, and the processing contract can not be performed normally.

Wuxi's Eve thinks he is not.

Tracing the origin of licensed processing is authorized.

Wuxi Ivor

Physical evidence is jeans.

The retained jeans and the backside stickers show "CROCODILE LADES" (plated as crocodile lady's clothing), and the tag and water mark are marked with "Crocodile and map".

The name, address and website of Heng Ji company are also listed on the tag, and are sold by Han Ji Ji, Korea raw materials, and China. This product is the product of Heng Ji Clothing Co., Ltd., and the products cooperated with the crocodile international agency Pte Ltd in technology and brand, and the brand authentication of Republic of Korea.

In addition, Wuxi Ivor also submitted a series of documentary evidence:

In November 30, 2009, Han Heng Ji signed a contract with South Korea's aive company. Heng Ji bought 3500 women's jeans to Ivor, and the delivery date was January 29, 2010.

In December 2, 2009, Wuxi aive signed a processing contract with South Korea's aive company, and Wuxi Ivor processed 3500 women's jeans for South Korea's Ivor company.

At the same time, Han Heng Ji issued a confirmation letter to South Korea's Ivor, and said that it commissioned the company's processing and production style to be processed and manufactured at the Wuxi Ivor company. All crocodile brand garments manufactured must be sent back to Korea and no sales can be made in China.

At the same time, authorized trademarks include "CROCODILE", "Crocodile and map" and crocodile graphic trademarks besides "Crocodile".

In addition, the authorized authorization of Wuxi aive directly from Han Heng Ji company has also been authorized by the company.

In July 23, 2010, the Singapore crocodile company issued the letter of authorization. The Han Heng Ji company signed the authorization agreement with the company in April 23, 2007. The company confirmed that the company could authorize South Korea's Ivor and Wuxi Ivor to manufacture crocodile brand clothing for women, and all the crocodile women's garments and garments made or authorized by them can only be sold in Korea.

The trademark that is authorized is the trademark and map marked by the above company.

The court's final judgment does not constitute a tort

In the trial of the court of first instance, the crocodile company approved the registration of trademarks No. 246898th and "CROCODILE" on the 20 day of March 1996 with the approval of the State Trademark Office of China, and approved the use of commodities as twenty-fifth kinds of trousers, etc., until March 29, 2016.

Singapore crocodile company registered the "Crocodile and map" trademark in Korea in 1987, the designated commodity is trousers and so on. In 2005, it registered the "CROCODILE" character brand, valid until 2016, the designated commodity is twenty-fifth kinds of trousers.

As the goods produced by Wuxi's Ivor have been legally authorized from South Korea and not sold in China, the court of first instance ruled in March 28, 2011 that the export commodities of Wuxi's Ivor did not constitute infringement.

The defendant refused to accept the appeals company and appealed to the first intermediate people's Court of Shanghai, and put forward a reason similar to that of the court of first instance. The fact that the infringement of Wuxi's Ivory was obvious was that it had no right to make a claim for non infringement during the customs handling process; Wuxi AI had not been authorized to use the trademark involved in the case; Wuxi AI could not prove that it had not sold the goods involved in China; Wuxi AI had not authorized the use of the appellant's registered trademark on the same commodity, violating its legitimate rights and interests.

The court of second instance held that the production behavior of Wuxi Ivor belongs to the act of foreign licensed processing. The trademark used in the production of the goods is legally authorized, and it has no subjective intent or fault in infringement.

Moreover, the behavior of licensed processing of Wuxi aive company did not cause market confusion, nor did it affect and lose the crocodile company.

Accordingly, a final judgment was made in July 15, 2011: the appeal was rejected and the original judgment was upheld.

Affirmation of infringement of intellectual property rights

The confirmation of non infringement of intellectual property is a kind of affirmation action, which requires the court to confirm the substantive legal relationship.

Because of the infringement warning letter of the intellectual property owner, the normal legal relationship between him and the unspecified obligor is in an indefinite state.

In a modern society that is fast, complex and highly modern, the unclear legal relationship will lead to great economic and social damage.

Therefore, when receiving a letter of infringement warning, an enterprise should flexibly apply the preventive function of a recognized lawsuit, first request the court to confirm the non infringement, and minimize losses.

Case meaning

OEM production of others' brand, without pricing power, makes China a big one while producing a big country.

Moreover, if it is licensed to produce famous brand products, it must be legally authorized. Now there are many world famous brands, which are being grabbed by non brand owners in China, and Chinese enterprises can not be sold in China. Otherwise, they will constitute infringement. This phenomenon has precedent and needs the attention of Chinese enterprises.

The products they sell to other countries do not exclude Chinese enterprises from importing from these countries, thus turning their products made in China into a circle abroad, paying all kinds of expenses, and importing domestic enterprises at a high price. This may be the real reason why the domestic prices of manufactured goods in China are higher than those in foreign countries.

How gloomy! It is better to create famous brand than to make others famous brand.

It's not technical level, but it's not. It's probably the place where we really need to think.