Since the Battle of Dawa, at the end of 2007, Danone, in order to realize its low-cost merger and acquisition, on the one hand, pressured Wahaha Group to negotiate with it through the French government, and on the eve of the peace talks, filed an objection or reexamination application against Wahaha Group's unrelated trademarks such as "Cool", "Activation" and "Simu". Many of these trademark objections or reexamination applications submitted by Danone have passed.
Wahaha Group believes that Wahaha Group, as an independent civil legal subject, is not a subsidiary of Danone Group, and enjoys complete autonomy and the right to survival and development according to Chinese laws, and its legal right to apply for a registered trademark according to law is given by the Trademark Law. The trademarks such as Nutrition Express, Shuang Bian and Activation are all designed and developed by Wahaha Group, and they are indeed licensed to the joint venture company for free. However, it is obviously impossible for Danone Group and its subsidiaries to raise objections or re-examine these trademarks of Wahaha Group, and even demand that these trademarks be transferred to the joint venture company for free!
Danone's objection application was rejected.
In July 2008, the State Trademark Office ruled (2008) Trademark Yanzi No.05023 on the objection case of "Shuang Bian", one of Danone's objection applications, and found that Jinjia Company's objection reason could not be established, so it should approve the trademark registration of "Shuang Bian" applied by Wahaha Group. Later, Danone objected to the ruling of the Trademark Office and asked for a review.
In this regard, legal experts pointed out that the contest between Danone and Wahaha expanded from the joint venture dispute to the trademark field, which is obviously another clumsy means to maliciously use trademark objection and review procedures in an attempt to achieve its goal of acquiring Wahaha Group at a low price. Although some of Danone's objections and applications for review are still under review due to the trial deadline, the law is of course fair, and any unreasonable or even rogue demands cannot be supported by the law. Therefore, the law will eventually return Wahaha to justice!
In July 2008, the State Trademark Office ruled (2008) Trademark Yanzi No.05023 on the objection case of "Shuang Bian", one of Danone's objection applications, and found that Jinjia Company's objection reason could not be established, so it should approve the trademark registration of "Shuang Bian" applied by Wahaha Group.