On August 20, an online event of New Balance case sharing was organized by the Membership Services Committee (MSC), which attracted more than 50 representatives from QBPC member companies. The meeting was co-hosted by MSC and the Best Practices/Enforcement Committee (BPEC). Amelie Chen, Brand Protection Manager of New Balance, and Alice Yu, Director of Shanghai Branch of Lu Sheng Law Firm and the responsible lawyer of the case, were invited to share New Balance’s experience against parasite brands and details about the New Balance vs. New Boom case, one of QBPC Top Ten Non-Criminal Cases of 2020.
After introducing the brand history and main products of New Balance, Amelie Chen shared the problems New Balance had with parasite brands as well as the company’s corresponding strategies. She summarized her experience and concluded that in combating parasite brands, in-house lawyers should integrate the principles of "steadiness", "attack" and "communication" in their work. In terms of steadiness, the brand owners should be mentally prepared for a long-term battle, making continuous efforts and keeping improving the integrity of the company’s basic rights. After the preliminary preparations, brand owners should attack with various measures including the application of trademark disputes, administrative disposals, civil litigations, and other alternative solutions available in the existing effective laws, regulations and judicial interpretation. Through communication, in-house lawyers could gather valuable information from sales team, the results of enforcement actions, the study of market research, and learn from peers to gain a profound understanding about the market. She also briefly introduced the case.
Alice Yu then spoke on the highlights of the case, their litigation strategies, barriers and countermeasures as well as the courts’ evaluation. The case was a landmark victory for New Balance in cracking down on parasite brands. Through successful litigation strategies and solid evidence collection, New Balance obtained behavior preservation in litigation (injunction) and won a high compensation of over ten million RMB. Alice mainly focused on the barriers when applying for the injunction, their solutions, the implementation of the injunction, and the elaborative calculation of the amount of damages.
Lastly, Peter Yang, Vice Chair of BPEC, summarized and commented on the sharing. He also led a further discussion with the speakers and online members on the bank guarantee of the injunction, the proof of the urgency and timeliness of the injunction, the calculation of profits and other related issues in the Q&A session.
The member companies participating in this event were ABRO, Amazon Kindle Business, Nike, Puma, Qualcomm, Schneider Electric, Unilever, Activision Blizzard, adidas, Allergan, Anta, ARRI, Audi China, Brita, Burberry, Canon, Colgate-Palmolive, CommScope, Continental Automotive, Covestro, Dupont, Eaton, Freudenberg, GSK, Hawley & Hazel, Honeywell, Jaguar Land Rover, Lacoste, lululemon, Luxottica, Mast-Jagermesiter, MLB, Moët Hennessy, New Balance, Novartis, Panasonic, Philips, Sanofi, Schaeffler, Servier, Siemens, Skechers, Specialized Bicycle Components, Stokke, Syngenta, and T.C. Pharmaceutical.