On April 1, 2021 Guangdong High People's Court made a final ruling in the second instance of Lego trademark infringement and unfair competition case. The court fully supported Lego's claim of RMB 30 million (about USD 4.7 million), which is 10 times of the damages awarded by the first instance court.
Guangdong Meizhi Zhijiao Technology Co., Ltd. the second branch of Guangdong Meizhi Zhijiao Technology Co., Ltd., and Shantou Zhilepin Toys Co., Ltd. copied a large quantity of "Lego" building blocks which carry the brand "Lepin". Guangdong High People's court found that this constituted trademark infringements and unfair competition and issued permanent injunction against the three defendants. Based on the evidences, which include the "Lepin" sales record on Taobao, the revenue of the infringing products amounted to over RMB 500 million (about USD 78 million). With reference to the profit rate of related industries, the Guangdong High People's Court estimated that the overall profit of the infringing products should far exceed RMB 160 million (about USD 25 million). Therefore, the court fully supported Lego's claim and awarded a total of RMB 30 million (about USD 4.7 million) which includes damages and reasonable expenses Lego paid to stop the infringement.
It is interesting that in the first instance, Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court only awarded a total damage of RMB 3 million (about USD 470,000). Both Lego and the defendants were not happy about this amount and appealed to Guangdong High People's Court which then awarded 10 times the total damage as in the first instance.
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