Luxury fashion brand, Burberry has emerged successful from a trade mark dispute against a Chinese company doing business as ‘Baneberry’.
Burberry first entered into legal proceedings against Xinboli Trading, a clothing company operating as ‘Baneberry’, in the Chinese courts in 2020 on the basis that its products infringed their ‘Burberry’ word mark, signature check pattern, and equestrian logo.
In 2021, the court sided with Burberry, noting that Baneberry’s products could cause confusion amongst consumers, and granted a preliminary injunction.
However, a Chinese court has now awarded Burberry with a further win by invalidating Xinboli Trading’s trade mark registrations on the basis that they are “used on crudely manufactured commodities that are passed off as being of high quality, and thus, deceives the consumers, the administrative departments for industry and commerce at various levels”.
In addition to invalidating Xinboli Trading’s trade marks, the court also awarded Burberry six million renminbi (approximately £675,668) in damages and extended the duration of the injunction. If you have any questions on the above, feel free to contact a member of the team at 0191 281 4000 or alternatively at legal@mcdanielslaw.com.
