Victory of New Balance over foreign plaintiff in Chinese trademark suit

From a recent report Boston and a MA-based athletic shoe and apparel company New Balance wins a massive victory over trademark infringement case from China where the company has file the infringement suit. This forms an amazing example for foreign plaintiff under IP claiming and also showing a friendly hand of China for imposing huge compensation over the infringers as promised by the Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The three domestic shoemakers had to pay of about 10 million yuan ($1.5 million USD) to New Balance for the infringement case on the slanted “N” logo used by New Balance by the Chinese IP court in Beijing. Generally speaking, it’s not actually such a big amount in the grand scheme of trademark damage but according to the previous reports it was the highly paid handed out by a Chinese court to a foreign plaintiff for trademark infringement allegations.
From a recent report in The New York Times says that the New Balance is on the losing space of the infringement suits filed to protect its trademark in China since preaching their shoe and that jurisdiction has began from the year 1995 onwards.

What is Plaintiff and Infringement suit ?

A Plaintiff is a person who brings a case against another in a court of law or we can also say that- “the plaintiff commenced an action for damages” a plaintiff is actually a person who is responsible for the filing of an infringement on the claims on which he or she has filed a suit to the court.
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or selling the patented invention. In many countries, a use is required to be commercial (or to have a commercial purpose) to constitute patent infringement. The scope of the patented invention or the extent of protection, is defined in the claims of the granted patent. In other words, the terms of the claims inform the public of what is not allowed without the permission of the patent holder.

China over IP Rights

From the fortune of New Balance and other foreign owners of Chinese trademarks has been overwhelmed by the “China’s passage of a new trademark law” in 2014. According to the law it states that the increased maximum statutory damages which could be ordered after findings of trademark infringement from $75,000 USD up to $450,000 USD. The New Balance damages award is multiples higher than that maximum statutory limit put in place by the Chinese government just three years ago which is causing the Chinese IP agency with more involvements within other foreign companies.

USPTO over IP rights

This may be the perfect moment for President Donald Trump to order a probe into China’s federal policies regarding foreign IP, albeit not necessarily for the reasons given by the White House. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will likely find and report on joint venture tech transfer rules enforced in China which fly in the face of World Trade Organization (WTO) policy on respect for foreign IP owners. But the USTR should also note that China is actively becoming a better jurisdiction for foreign IP owners in ways which actively address key weaknesses noted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2017 international IP index.
Through last July, foreign plaintiffs bringing IP claims to China were successful in 100 percent of their cases. Although IP infringement in China has been rampant leading up until recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping made remarks this July on the “heavy price” that IP infringers should face. And standing in direct contrast to U.S. IP policy, new Chinese patent examination rules which went into effect this April are more welcoming to the patentability software and business method inventions.

Conclusion

From this report we can conclude that the Chinese government has been working very hard to take off the Chinese IP Agency to the world’s top IP positioning which has its best example discussed in this report , moreover the Trump Administration’s probe of Chinese IP policy should uncover is the fact that the United States needs to change course, and fast, if it wants to keep from being overtaken as the top jurisdiction for IP rights.