Unitalen assists Taiwan company in winning trademark assignment administrative litigation

December 5, 2007
On November 16, 2007, Beijing Municipal People’s High Court made a final judgment on the trademark assignment dispute case raised by Taiwan Hua Mao International Trading Co.,Ltd. against the Trademark Office of State Administration for Industry and Commerce (TMO), the third party Shanghai Huan Mao Industry Co., Ltd. (Huan Mao) and the third party Shanghai Huan Bang Plastic Products Co., Ltd. (Huan Bang).

The lawsuit has lasted for two years. The Court concluded a final decision to uphold the first instance judgment ruled by Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, which orders TMO to recall the two concrete administrative acts on the approval of trademark assignments.

In this lawsuit, Hua Mao is a Taiwan enterprise, whose legal representative set up Huan Mao and Huan Bang in the Chinese mainland. Since the establishment of the two companies were conducted by an authorized party on behalf of Hua Mao, the Taiwan firm is not able to exercise any actual business management rights in the two subsidiaries.

Huan Bang transferred the trademark to its own proprietary and then to Huan Mao in 2002 and 2005, respectively, without getting permission from Hua Mao.

Hua Mao did not discover the illegal assignment until it intended to renew the trademark in 2005. In February 2006, Hua Mao entrusted Beijing Unitalen Attorney at Law to sue TMO in Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, demanding recalling the two TMO administrative acts over the approval of trademark assignments. TMO, Huan Bang and Huan Mao then appealed to Beijing People’s High Court. On November 16 this year, the High Court turned down the appeal and upheld the first instance ruling.

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