"It is the 24th lawsuit lodged by Shanghai Jahwa this year. More are surely due to come." said a judge from Nanjing Intermediate People's Court while he was busy with keying case information. Reportedly, the IP cases accepted by Nanjing Intermediate People's Court last year saw a year-on-year increase of 57%, which was majorly attributed to the facts that IP right holders safeguarded their rights and scaled up compensation complaints.
Shanghai Jahwa United Co., Ltd. as a famous domestic daily used chemical enterprise owns so many brands such as Liushen, Maxam and Chinfie. Every summer, counterfeited Liushen Florida Water in large amount would spring up. As Shanghai Jahwa could not spare energy to fight counterfeits in the past, few litigations were filed.
Since last year, Shanghai Jahwa focused on safeguarding its rights and filed 71 lawsuits against the infringement of Liushen trademark. As the summer came again, Shanghai Jahwa started compensation complaints and filed 24 cases which had been accepted by the court. The defendants were mostly daily used chemical producers and individual businessmen. The plaintiff claimed a compensation of 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan in each complaint.
Mr. Zhao, an operator of Shilin wholesale market, was charged with selling counterfeited Liushen Florida, leading to a claimed compensation of 40,000 yuan. The court ruled the defendant should pay Shanghai Jahwa 5,000 yuan as compensation since it infringed the plaintiff's exclusive trademark rights.
In addition to Shanghai Jahwa's litigations, Jiangsu Office of the Music Copyright Society of China filed 30 lawsuits against stockholders illegally using background music; Media Asia Entertainment Group Limited brought more than 100 net cafes to the court for copyright infringement.
"It proved that IP right holders had waked up," said a judge. Compared with enterprises in developed countries, many Chinese enterprises were weak in IPR protection awareness. Even some large enterprises were also reluctant to fight against infringements. The above mentioned cases were lodged by law firms or IP agencies for in place of right holders. Such a kind of assigned rights-safeguarding approach was effective.
However, the court would be more careful with their affirmation of compensation. For the defendants whose operation scale was not so big and their violations were not so serious, the court would take into consideration the actual circumstances and ordered less compensations.
(Source:IPR in China)
