Recently, Zhejiang High People’s Court releases Top 10 Typical IP suitcases of Zhejiang Province, 2020. The case, Craco Fluid Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. vs. Jiaxing Xiuzhou District KLG Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd and Yunlong Cao, represented by the NTD is honored to be picked again as TOP 10, just as the case, Rimowa patent infringement dispute, which was represented by the NTD still was been selected as Top 10 Typical IP Suitcases in Zhejiang province in 2019.
In this case, the NTD represented Craco Fluid Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. After studying the case carefully, our team claimed at the trial that the plaintiff, i.e., Graco held the right of trademark “ULTRA”. The defendants argued that the involved trademark belonged to generic name or model of the goods, and was used legitimately because it was descriptive. After analyzing the distinctiveness of the trademark registered by Graco, the defendants' intention to use the trademark, the necessity of use the trademark, the specific form of the trademark, and whether may easily cause confusion in markets, our attorneys fully explained why the defendants' argument of using the trademark legitimately was unfounded. Our statements were at last supported by the counts of first and second instances.
According to Zhejiang High People's Court, the defendants infringed the trademark right on the basis of analyzing the determination of using the mark as a trademark, the similarity of the trademark, and the argument of legitimate use for its nature of generic name and model of the goods. The court also urged the only shareholder to bear joint and several liability when the defendant company was judged to compensate the damages. As a wholly-owned subsidiary in China of Graco Company, a world-leading fluid equipment producer, the right holder’s winning has fully safeguarded its lawful rights and interests and helped to create a business environment with fair competition under the rule of law.
