On September 27, 2022, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court issued the final judgment in a trademark infringement dispute in which it confirmed that the use of a logo similar to the VANS stripe marks on shoes was trademark infringement and imposed a damages award of RMB 1 million (approximately US $145,750) on the infringer.
The appellee (plaintiff in the first instance), Vans, Inc. (Vans), owns trademark registrations for the following:
Vans submitted evidence that shoes bearing said marks have been widely sold in China. Having noticed that the appellant (defendant in the first instance), XUE Shengbo, a natural person, sold shoes bearing a logo similar to the VANS stripe marks on Pinduoduo (a Chinese e-commerce platform), Vans filed a trademark infringement lawsuit and requested the court to order the appellant to immediately stop infringing its exclusive trademark rights and to award compensation.
The appellant claimed that the use of the accused infringing logo (pictured below) was not trademark use because the logo does not function to identify the source of goods. Besides, the appellant argued that the appellee's trademarks were weak in distinctiveness and their ability to function as trademarks was limited. He further claimed that the opening part of the contested logo made the entire logo different from the appellee's registered trademarks; thus, their coexistence did not cause confusion among consumers.
The first and second instance courts both held that the appellant's use of the accused infringing logo, which is similar to the appellee's registered trademarks on the accused infringing canvas shoes, constituted trademark use and therefore such use was trademark infringement. Besides, the appellant did not submit sufficient evidence to substantiate his claim that Vans' stripe marks did not function as source identifiers. The courts ruled that the appellant should pay Vans RMB 1 million (approximately US $145,750) to compensate it for its economic losses and reasonable expenses.
In the present case, the product description on the appellant's online shop and the accused infringing logo used in the shoes' appearance played a role in identifying the source of the goods.
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