On May 28, 2019, Suzhou Intermediate Court rendered a first-instance decision, affirming that Liangshan Shuihu Tire Company’s act of using “”  trademark on motorcycle and agrimotor tire constituted trademark infringement over the trademarks “”  and “”  owned by BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION. The Court ordered the infringer to indemnify brand owner’s damages and cover the reasonable costs incurred in opposing and invalidating the accused infringing trademarks filed in bad faith. The judgment has become effective.

Prior to the civil lawsuit, BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION sought to block the registration of the “” mark filed by Liangshan Shuihu Tire Company through trademark opposition, opposition review and subsequent administrative proceedings. The Beijing High Court affirmed that “” cannot be granted registration due to its similarity to BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION's cited trademarks “” and “”.

In this civil case, the Suzhou Intermediate Court found the 3 million damages claimed by BRIDGESTONE CORPORATION well-founded: 1) The infringing trademark has been used for over 10 years; 2) the sales contract Liangshan Shuihu submitted during the trademark opposition review administrative proceeding corroborates the sale of infringing tire yields more than 3 million profits; and 3) Liangshan Shuihu exhibits bad faith in freeriding the reputation of the plaintiff’s registered trademarks. The defendant continues to use the infringing trademarks after the TRAB proceeding and trademark administrative proceeding confirmed that “FULISITONG福力思通” constitute similar trademark to the plaintiff’s cited trademark. The court therefore found the defendant’s ensuing act constitutes bad faith infringement, which warrants punitive damages.

Based on the above, the court awarded a maximum statutory damages of 3 million and ordered the defendant to cover the plaintiff’s reasonable costs (RMB 291,343) incurred in this civil lawsuit and the previous administrative proceedings (opposition and the follow-up administrative proceedings).

Contributed by: Wen Cui