Puma wins lawsuit against supermarket selling bogus sneakers

SHANGHAI, July 20 (Xinhua) -- German sportswear maker Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport has won a lawsuit against a supermarket in Shanghai that sold fake Puma athletic shoes, a Shanghai court ruled Friday.

The Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court heard that Fu-mart, a supermarket owned by the Nanhui branch of the Kunshan Runhua Commerce Co,. Ltd. in Shanghai, allegedly sold sports shoes bearing logos identical to the Puma logo.

Lawyers representing Puma managed to buy a pair of fake Puma shoes for 69 yuan (nine U.S. dollars) on Dec. 22, 2006 at the market.

The German company, which registered the Puma logo in China in 1999, demanded an end to the infringements, a public apology and a compensation of 500,000 yuan (65,700 U.S. dollars).

The supermarket argued the shoes, registered under the "Shuqi" trademark, came from legal sources.

The market said that it didn't know the shoemaker had infringed on Puma's trademark rights, adding that it should not be liable for compensation, as it has only sold two pairs of the shoes, and had terminated sales.

The court ruled that the supermarket failed to identify the infringement and should be held responsible for selling counterfeit Puma products. It ordered the supermarket to publish a public statement to mitigate the negative effect it has caused on the Puma company and pay 100,000 yuan (13,100 U.S. dollars) in damages.