A Chinese vendor who was caught selling mosquito killer lamps and earphones with the Huawei trademark has been fined up to $294,000. The fine of 2 million yuan to the goods seller was for trademark infringement. The company named in the documents filed at China’s trademark office was Shenzhen Zhiyuan Network Technology Co. Ltd. Huawei had filed an unfair competition dispute against the company.
Huawei stated that it believed Zhiyuan’s products with the words Huawei infringed on its rights, and thus liable for compensation. The documents which have entered the public domain in China indicated that Huawei listed the mosquito killer lamps and earphones as the products in contention. Both products were sold via the Zhiyuan Company’s online store and were marked with the words Huawei. In addition, both products prominently used a logo similar to Huawei’s in the online page’s picture.
The plaintiff, Huawei notes that the action of Zhiyuan was a trademark infringement. There were other words used by the respondent to connote a non-existent connection with Huawei. The respondent was therefore accused of conducting false publicity which constitutes unfair competition. Huawei says it wants the defendant to bear joint and several liabilities on behalf of its company. The defendant was Mr. Tang, who argued that he was not the sole shareholder of the company.
Up to nine product links were identified by Huawei with an estimated sale of over 500,000 units.
The estimated sales amount was 7.55 million yuan ($1.11 million). The Court ruled that Zhiyuan Company copied and imitated the Huawei trademark. This action infringed the plaintiff’s right to exclusive use of the Huawei trademark. Furthermore, the prominent use of Huawei and other logos on the product pages and names of eight earphones also violated the rights of the plaintiff. The sole shareholder Tang X was thus mandated to jointly compensate Huawei for economic losses up to 2 million yuan ($264,000).
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