On December 17, 2019, China Supreme People’s Court (SPC) maintained the first instance judgment made by Fujian High Court, ruling in favor of Reebok in a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit against Jinjiang Raysun Sports Products Co., Ltd. The SPC affirmed trademark infringement and infringement over copyrighted fine art, ordered cessation and awarded damages of RMB 3,000,000.

Raysun asserted legitimate use, arguing that it has been licensed to use the litigious registered trademarks and it has copyrighted the litigious fine art. The argument was dismissed by both courts, considering that Raysun had transformed the registered trademarks in actual use, making it visually similar to Reebok’s cited mark and that Reebok’s cited fine art predates the litigious fine art of Raysun. The SPC therefore rebutted Raysun’s defense of legitimate use and concluded that it could not be exempted from infringement liabilities.

Contributed by: Huan Xia