1 June 2021
Case Spotlight
Huawei Hongmeng “Harmony” Trade Mark Refusal Decision was Upheld in the First-Instance Judgment
法院一审判决维持华为“鸿蒙”商标驳回复审决定
Date: 2021-05-12
On May 12, 2021, Huawei and the CNIPA announced on the first-instance judgement, which upheld the decision to refuse the trade mark application of Huawei's "Hongmeng" (“Harmony”) mark.
Huawei applied for the registration of the "Hongmeng" trade mark in May 2019. In May 2020, the application was rejected by the CNIPA due to an objection pursuant to Article 30 of the PRC Trade Mark Law. The trade mark in dispute in this case involves the word mark "Hongmeng", and the cited trade mark is a combination trade mark of the graphic "CRM Hongmeng" and the Chinese word "Hongmeng". The disputed trade mark and the cited trade mark constitute as similar trade marks, which can easily cause confusion and misunderstanding by the relevant public.
At the same time, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that the evidence provided by Huawei was not sufficient to prove that the disputed trade mark was used to gain a high reputation, thus establishing a unique connection to Huawei. The trade mark is not sufficiently distinctive in terms of its designated services, and creates a likelihood of confusion to the relevant public when compared to the cited trade mark. The claims made by Huawei are not supported due to insufficient factual and legal basis.
(Cited Trade Mark)
(Trade Mark in Dispute)
Source: https://www.bjcourt.gov.cn/cpws/paperView.htm?id=100943972645&n=1
Arbitration is also the preferred method of dispute resolution for cases involving China because foreign judgments are not enforceable there. While the Chinese courts are an option – and despite the substantial improvement in the Chinese IP litigation system – many parties prefer to arbitrate dispute rather than litigate.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen intense cooperation efforts in the pharmaceutical and life sciences areas as well as significant leaps in the development and use of technology, all of which may in the longer term lead to disputes over the scope and terms of the cooperation agreements and rights to inventions and other developments.
Rouse’s Global Head of Dispute Resolution, Doug Clark, will talk about how he sees the future of IP dispute resolution in Asia, focussing on China, as well as the various options for arbitration IP disputes in Asia. In doing so he will discuss key issues that have arisen in recent arbitration disputes he has handled both as an arbitrator and as counsel.
Global Head of Trade Marks, Rouse
rtan@rouse.com
