Supreme： Our Chinese Trademark Has A Play

The American company, which is considered to be the genuine Supreme, formally sought the support of the Chinese government for its trademark infringement lawsuit, and this event was particularly special in the stage of the Sino US trade war.

Supreme considered as a counterfeiter After the high-profile announcement of cooperation with Samsung, Italia launched two retail stores in Shanghai to sell products including the brand Supreme. Since then, the United States has decided to start the road of rights protection. At present, the protection of rights has quietly changed.

According to the records in the database of the China Trademark Office, Supreme Italia has not found any registration records. Supreme, owned by International Brand Company Limited, is now waiting for substantive review in the query on China Trademark Network.

According to data query, American Supreme does not have any registered trademark in China at present. However, the Supreme database shows that the brand has 85 trademark applications, all of which are pending approval.

In 2016, Supreme Italia took Supreme Italia to the Milan court and won the lawsuit.

At that time, the court ruled in the final judgment that Supreme Italia was unfair competition and had to withdraw the goods from the market and compensate Supreme 5500 euros, and the website superprimeitalia.com was also shut down.

In the process of trademark registration in various countries, most of the people who apply for and register the trademark first have legitimate rights and interests in the trademark. In case of trademark disputes, if the trademark is registered first by malicious squatters, it can help the real owner to retrieve the trademark.

Trademark protection is regional. Trademarks registered in the United States will not be automatically protected in other countries. Owners must seek trademark protection in other jurisdictions through trademark application procedures.

The new Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China has been promulgated. The focus of the revision is to crack down on trademark hoarding for non use purposes and raise the legal compensation limit for trademark infringement. The amendment will come into force on November 1, 2019.

Brands need to plan their global strategy in advance to enter the Chinese market to ensure that they retain the registered trademarks of their goods and services. Since the trademark registration and protection laws in mainland China do not cover Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, brand owners must also seek trademark protection in all these areas to ensure full coverage in Greater China.

In the short term, brand owners should strive to retrieve the registered trademarks, so as to maintain the integrity of global trademarks and avoid consumer confusion. In the long run, comprehensive protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights will certainly receive support from all countries.