A Chinese hotel named Beijing Lafeite Castle Hotel Co., Ltd. (Lafeite Hotel) in 2007 filed for the registration of the mark “拉斐特” (pronounced as “Lafeite” in Mandarin) for use on restaurant and hotel related services under Class 43, which the China Trademark Office (CTMO) approved for registration in 2015.
Château Lafite Rothschild (Rothschild), the producer of the globally famous wine brand “LAFITE” (“拉菲” in Chinese, pronounced as “Lafei” in Mandarin), filed for the cancellation of the disputed mark before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) claiming that, as its prior registered trademarks “LAFITE” and “拉菲” (“Lafei”) designated for use on wine products have attained well-known status, the disputed mark “拉斐特” (“Lafeite”), which is similar to the mark “拉菲” (“Lafei”), may damage Rothschild’s interests.
[Note: according to Article 13 of the Trademark Law, well-known trademarks that are registered in China are entitled to cross-class protection to the extent that no mark that is a copy, imitation or translation of said well-known mark may be registered for use in whatever class of goods, if doing so may mislead the public or otherwise damage the interest of the registrant of the well-known mark.]
The TRAB however handed an unfavorable decision holding that the evidence adduced is insufficient to prove that Rothschild’s trademarks “LAFITE” and “拉菲” (“Lafei”) had attained well-known status in China prior to the registration of the trademark; meanwhile, since the restaurant services under Class 43 and the wine products are dissimilar, the disputed mark, as applied for use on restaurant related services, is unlikely to damage Rothschild’s interests. Continue reading “Lafite succeeds in cancelling ‘Lafeite’ used on hotel services” »
Today’s blog post has been kindly brought to you by our IPR expert Mr. Toby Mak from Tee & Howe Intellectual Property Attorneys. In his article, which was first published in UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) Journal, Mr. Mak gives a detailed overview of the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office’s final draft of the proposed revisions to the Chinese Patent Law. 
Prior trade mark registrations, also called ‘bad-faith registrations’, are a significant problem that many European companies encounter in China. This process commonly involves a Chinese company first registering the trade mark of a foreign company in China with the express intention of selling it back to the foreign company at an inflated price. Finding out that a Chinese company has registered a bad faith trade mark is one of the biggest complaints of European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) trying to enter the Chinese market. These prior registrations can limit the foreign company’s freedom to operate by restricting its ability to enter the China market or even to source goods from China.