A court in Shanghai ordered two Chinese firms to pay BMW 3 million yuan ($431,617.41) for registering trademarks similar to those used by the German automaker.
Zhou Leqin, one of the accused companies, registered Deguo Baoma Group (Int’l) Holdings Limited, which translates as ‘German BMW Group (Int’l) Holdings Limited, in China in July 2008 and also registered the trademark ‘BMN’ with a logo that’s similar to that used by BMW, according to a report from Shanghai Daily.
This logo was used by a local fashion company called Chuangjia, which sold clothing products, including shoes and bags. Chuangjia has also further modified the plagiarized trademark over the years in order to make it more similar to the authentic BMW logo.
The Shanghai Intellectual Property Court found that the accused infringed BMW’s trademarks, also registered in China, by taking advantage of its reputation.
The decision marks a big win for foreign brands in China and portrays that courts are starting to take trademark infringement more seriously in a country where replicas and copies of every product imaginable have become something of a norm for the last few years.
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