On June 4, the Quality Brands Protection Committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (QBPC) Automation & Electric Industry Working Group (A&E IWG) held a seminar with introduction by Eaton on its case which had been selected as one of QBPC 2023-2024 Annual Top Ten Cases. The meeting was hosted by IWG coordinator Tim Jiang, and 17 representatives from 10 QBPC member companies attended the meeting.
In the opening speech, Tim stated that QBPC Annual Top Ten Cases provided member companies with the opportunity to learn more about the outstanding cases and hoped that the participants would benefit from Eaton's experience through the case study.
Eaton representatives, Peter Yang, Best Practices/Enforcement Committee (BEPC) Chair, and Leon Lv, Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee (GAPPC) Vice Chair, provided a detailed overview of the case - “SANTAK vs Guangdong Techfine Electronic Co., Ltd. for infringing the exclusive rights of registered trademarks and unfair competition”. In 2015, SANTAK, an affiliate of Eaton (China) Investment Co., Ltd., applied for the invalidation of the infringing trademark. Then it decided to file a civil lawsuit in 2019. The civil lawsuit went through two trial procedures, and in February 2024, the Higher People's Court of Sichuan Province issued a final judgment, ordering each of the defendants to stop infringing, compensate SANTAK with more than 8 million yuan for economic losses, and publish a statement in the newspaper to eliminate negative impact. Leon described in detail the timeline of the infringer's registration of similar trademarks in this case, the collection of relevant evidence, the source of the infringer's liability, and the analysis on court's perspective on what constitutes unfair competition and joint infringement.
After that, Catherine Law, who was in charge of this case, discussed the features of infringement in the industrial products industry, the source of the infringer's "rights", the methodology of collecting evidence, and the calculation of infringement profits. According to Catherine, the infringement in industrial products industry had its own unique features, based on which the appropriate approach was the key to handle relevant cases. Right holders should cooperate with external lawyers in collecting evidence of the use of relevant brands, which had crucial influence over the results of litigation.
Representatives from QBPC members engaged in extensive discussions and exchanges on the infringement liability of trademark malicious snatching and litigation property preservation. In the end, Tim thanked the speakers for their wonderful sharing and QBPC members’ enthusiastic participation.