Two months ago, Bruce Lee's daughter, Li Xiangning, sued Guangzhou Kungfu Restaurant, claiming 2 1 10,000 yuan for infringement. The cause of action involved a "general personality right dispute".
At that time, people in the industry generally believed that the claim amount of 2 1 10,000 yuan was too high, and the plaintiff exceeded the time required by law to revoke the trademark involved. Considering all the factors, it is difficult to defend rights in this situation.
Just when the outcome of the case was still unclear, new variables appeared in the trademark of "Real Kung Fu", which made the trend of the case gradually clear.
On August 25th, 2022, 20 "Kungfu" trademarks held by Guangzhou Kungfu Catering Management Co., Ltd. were declared invalid.
Since then, 65,438+04 trademarks similar to Bruce Lee's portrait and classic movements have been declared invalid by China National Intellectual Property Administration. The applicant is Bruce Lee Cultural Information Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and the company law is Li Xiangning. China National Intellectual Property Administration believed through trial that Bruce Lee was a well-known public figure with high popularity and extensive influence before applying for registration of the "Kung Fu" trademark.
The trademark "Real Kung Fu" is almost the same as Bruce Lee's portrait and classic movements. As a trademark, it is easy for consumers to misunderstand the service source and other characteristics, which violates the situation referred to in Item (7) of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the Trademark Law.
Finally, China National Intellectual Property Administration ruled that the "Kung Fu" trademark was invalid. At the same time, the remaining trademarks of Kungfu were declared invalid for violating the provisions of Article 10. 1.7 of the Trademark Law.
In fact, on 20 10, Li Xiangning set up an office to deal with trademark infringement in Bruce Lee. 20 19 19 On February 25th, Bruce Lee Company sued Guangzhou Kungfu Restaurant to Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court, demanding that the defendant immediately stop the infringement and issue a statement to eliminate the influence, and requesting the court to order the defendant to compensate the economic loss of 2 10/00000 yuan and the reasonable cost of rights protection of 88,000 yuan.
This time, 20 "real kung fu" trademarks were "declared invalid", which will be the key factor affecting the trial results.
It should be noted that once the ruling of trademark invalidation takes effect, the corresponding exclusive right to use a registered trademark will be regarded as nonexistent from the beginning.
At the same time, the invalid reason is that China National Intellectual Property Administration thinks that the registered trademark of Guangzhou Kung Fu Restaurant is almost the same as Bruce Lee's portrait and classic movements, so Li Xiangning's request to the court to "stop using Bruce Lee's image" is easy to get support.
But this does not mean that Guangzhou Kungfu Restaurant must be renamed for two reasons.
First, Guangzhou Kungfu Restaurant has upgraded the graphic trademark and re-created the font and comics of the trademark LOGO.
Second, the invalid registered trademark does not involve other trademarks under the company name, especially the Chinese "Kung Fu" trademark, which means that the use of the word "Kung Fu" does not affect.
If the case is lost, Guangzhou Kungfu Catering will not only bear the corresponding liability for compensation, but also have a greater impact on its company's operation.
In business activities, whether there is a problem in trademark registration or brand protection, it may affect the whole body. I hope that the majority of business operators will take a warning, try to use original designs when applying for trademarks, and don't be obsessed with the popularity of others.
In addition, both public figures and enterprises should always pay attention to the situation of trademarks and brands related to them in the market, do a good job in trademark layout and defense in advance, and at the same time face infringement, decisively attack and actively defend rights.
Legal basis:
Article 63 of the Trademark Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) determines that.
When determining the claim amount of trademark infringement cases, the following factors can be considered. Specifically including:
1, according to the actual loss suffered by the obligee due to infringement;
2, according to the interests of the infringer due to infringement;
3. Reasonable determination with reference to multiple of trademark license fee;
4. At the discretion of the court, if it is difficult to determine the loss of the obligee, the profit of the infringer and the trademark license fee, the people's court will award compensation of less than 5 million yuan according to the circumstances of the infringement.