Case Brief

The Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (“CIVB”), founded in 1948, is a French group of enterprises representing nearly 10,000 Bordeaux wine producers and growers, and 400 wineries. One of the many missions of the organisation is to promote the brand and defend the prestige of the Bordeaux wines in France and abroad.

On July 14, 2012 ,the CIVB registered, as a collective trademark, the geographical indication (“GI”) “BORDEAUX波尔多” (BORDEAUX in Latin & Chinese character) in Class 33, designating wines.

On June 1, 2017, it came to CIVB’s attention that Yantai Lark was producing and distributing wines bearing the trademark “Bordeaux” and the false AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) statement of "Bordeaux Appellation". In May 2018, CIVB sued Yantai Lark before the Yantai Intermediate Court on the ground of trademark infringement and unfair competition, requesting cessation of the infringement and damages.

On November 16, 2018, the Yantai Intermediate Court rendered a decision in favor of CIVB and ordered Yantai Lark to pay 500,000 Rmb as damages. Yantai Lark appealed before the Shandong High Court, which upheld the first instance judgment on May 13, 2019.

Both courts found that using the mark “Bordeaux” and referring to the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Bordeaux constituted a forgery of the origin of the product and an infringement of the registered collective trademark. Furthermore, by claiming that all its products were imported from France, Yantai Lark was engaged in unfair competition.

Comments:

This is the first civil case that GI collective trademark “Bordeaux波尔多” is granted judicial protection by a high court in China, which is expected to serve as a point of reference to the administrative and judicial protection of GI in the future.

In November 2019, China concluded with the EU the negotiations on a landmark bilateral agreement on the protection of GI and signed with France the Franco-Chinese protocol on cooperation on GI. The fact that the decision predates the inking of both agreements reflects China judiciary's strong protection of foreign geographical indications.

This case is selected as one of the “2019 Top Ten IP Cases” by the Shandong High Court.

Contributed by: Zhigang Zhu