A local Chinese fast food restaurant was ordered to pay 80,000 yuan (US$12,640) to the children of a deceased paper-cutting artist for illegally using their father's art work on the restaurant's trademark, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court said yesterday.

The four children of Wang Zigan, a famous paper-cutting artist, brought the case to the court after they found Shanghai Zhending Chicken Development Industry Co used their father's artwork on its registered trademark without approval in 2010.

The plaintiffs said Zhending Chicken had plagiarized their father's paper-cutting work that depicted a vigorous and crowing rooster.

They asked the company to stop using the pattern on its trademark and demanded 500,000 yuan compensation.

Zhending Chicken argued the rooster pattern was not unique and the registered trademark was created on its own. The company also said it had added its Chinese brand name to the trademark, which made it distinctive and well-known among customers.

The court ordered the fast-food chain company to pay.