Mosquito killer lamps seller fined $294000 for using Huawei logo

Huawei is very active in protecting its rights of using the trademark and recently, a Chinese goods seller was caught selling mosquito killer lamps and earphones with Huawei Logo, afterward, it was fined 2 million ($294000) for trademark infringement.

China’s trademark office record shows Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Zhiyuan Network Technology Co., Ltd. for unfair competition disputes.

Huawei believes that the products sold by Zhiyuan Company with the words “Huawei” infringed on its rights, and it should be liable for compensation.

Matter in core:

The documents made public by the Chinese patent office reveal that the plaintiff Huawei claimed that the names of the mosquito killer lamps and earphones sold by the defendant Zhiyuan Company in the online store were marked with the words “Huawei”, and prominently used the logo similar to the plaintiff’s trademark in the page picture, constituting trademark infringement.

The defendant also used words such as “official genuine Huawei general purpose” on some product pages to conduct false publicity, which constituted unfair competition. The defendant Tang, as a one-person shareholder of Zhiyuan Company, should bear joint and several liabilities.

The defendant Zhiyuan Company argued that the word “Huawei” did not appear in the title of the mosquito killer lamp product, and the plaintiff did not have any mosquito killer lamp products, so there was no possibility of confusing consumers by misidentifying the brand.

The model of the applicable phone marked on the title of the product is an industry practice, and there is no unfair competition. The defendant Tang argued that he was not the sole shareholder of Zhiyuan Company.

Meanwhile, the total sales volume of the 9 product links involved in the case exceeded 500,000 pieces, with a sales amount of more than 7.55 million yuan ($1.11 million).

The court decided that Zhiyuan Company copied and imitated the well-known trademark “Huawei” involved in the case on the sales page of mosquito killer lamps, which infringed the plaintiff’s right to exclusive use of the well-known trademark.

The prominent use of “Huawei” and other logos on the product pages and names of eight earphones violated the plaintiff’s right to exclusive use of registered trademarks. The aforementioned actions of Zhiyuan Company violated the principle of good faith and belonged to unlawful commercial publicity in a misleading manner and fair competition.

Hence court came to that defendant Zhiyuan Company when the alleged infringement occurred, could not clarify the company’s property and his personal property. In the end, the court ruled that Zhiyuan Company and Tang X (sole shareholder) should jointly compensate Huawei for economic losses of 2 million yuan ($294000) for using its copyrighted logo on mosquito killer.