Burberry made headlines this week thanks to its win in a trademark squabble in China. The British fashion brand recently prevailed in the trademark infringement and unfair competition case that it waged in China back in 2020, with a high court upholding a previously ordered injunction that blocks a “copycat” brand, Baneberry, from using a number of Burberry’s trademarks. As we reported this week, in a second-instance judgment, the Jiangsu Provincial High People’s Court recently affirmed a lower court’s award of injunctive relief that bars Xinboli Trading Shanghai from using Burberry’s check pattern mark, a logo that mimics Burberry’s equestrian knight mark, and the confusingly similar “Baneberry” word mark.
In addition to extending the duration of the injunction, the court awarded Burberry RMB 6 million ($831,255) in damages and granted “well known” status for the trademarks at issue, thereby, enabling Burberry to enjoy heightened protections for those marks.
Not the only recent win for Burberry in China, the Shanghai Jingan Procuratorate announced late last month that a party in the business of offering up counterfeit Burberry goods had been prosecuted, with the Shanghai No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court upholding an earlier judgment sentencing the defendant (referred to as Gong XX) to 5 years in prison and a 2 million RMB ($276,797) fine.
