Ritz-Carlton Hotel sues Shanghai Rits Fitness for trademark infringement

On 7 April, the Shanghai 2nd Intermediate People's Court held a trial on the trademark infringement dispute case between the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Shanghai Rits Fitness Co. Ltd.





The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is well-known as a global hotel chain company. It registered its trademark "RITZ" in China, covering services in class 43 and 44 like hotel, restaurant, bar, beauty salon and rest home. Shanghai Rits Fitness Co. Ltd. provides sauna and massage services and uses "RITS" as its trademark representation.

The plaintiff held that, since the trademark representation "RITS" was similar to its trademark "RITZ," the defendant's use of "RITS" would lead the consumers to confuse the source of the service and brought damage to the reputation of Ritz-Carlton. Therefore, the plaintiff requested the court to order that the defendant should immediately stop using the representation "RITS," compensate RMB 300,000 and pay for the plaintiff's reasonable cost to deter the infringement.

However, the defendant argued that, since the representation "RITS" was different from the plaintiff's "RITZ" in appearance, meaning and pronunciation, its service mark "RITS" would not lead the customers to confuse the source of services.

As one of the parties refused mediation, the court will make the judgment after deliberation.