In June 2020, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, Colgate Palmolive announced they would consider rebranding (“evolve”) Darlie (previously Darkie) toothpaste which is known in Chinese as 黑人牙膏 (Black Person’s Toothpaste). The rebranding looked liked it was going ahead based on Chinese trademark filings made by Colgate affiliate 好维股份有限公司 (Hawley and Hazel (BVI) Co. Ltd.) in June 2020 for 卫觉公式 and HYMULA. However, since then Hawley has continued to file marks for Black Person and variants that many …
Category: Trademarks
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate Issues 26th Batch of Guiding Cases for Intellectual Property
On February 8, 2021, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the 26th batch of guiding cases covering intellectual property. This batch covers 5 cases including criminal trademark, copyright and trade secret law. Foreign victims included Starbucks, Cisco, and HP in 2 of the 5 cases. A brief summary of the cases follow. The full text is available here (in Chinese only).
Biden was Inaugurated on January 20, 2021, His Name is Already Trademarked in China
The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on January 20, 2021. However, Chinese companies have been applying for his name as a trademark as far back as 2004. Trademark applications increased significantly as the election race heated up in 2020 with 18 trademarks applied for in 2020 for Biden in English. The Chinese transliteration of Biden – 拜登 – was also popular with a 108 trademark applications in total (with 20 of …
Shell Awarded 5.5 Million RMB in Chinese Trademark Infringement Case
On January 21, 2021, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court announced the awarding of 5.5 Million RMB (~$851 thousand USD) in damages and expenses to Shell International and Shell China for trademark infringement regarding automobile lubricants. The Court also awarded an injunction against the 5 defendants: corporations North Shell Company (北壳公司), Jianchi Company (剑驰公司) , Annaichi Company (安耐驰公司), and persons Wang and Song.