Shiseido institutes lawsuit against trademark infringement

Recently the Shanghai 2nd Intermediate People's Court accepted two cases in which Shiseido Co. Ltd. sued five defendants for trademark infringement and unfair competition. The five defendants included Shanghai Jingdian Cosmetics Co. Ltd., Shanghai Roumey Bio-Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Xiaoxian Meiye Bio-Technology Co. Ltd., Li Wei and Ma Yan.

Shiseido Co. Ltd. registered the trademarks "SHISEIDO" and "资生堂" in China and its cosmetics enjoy good reputation throughout the world. The defendant companies, Shanghai Jingdian, Shanghai Roumey and Shanghai Xiaoxian, were successively established by the couple Li Wei and Ma Yan. The three companies used the marks "SHIDOAS" and "资生堂雅姿" on the cosmetics they manufactured. In addition, Ma Yan also registered a company in Hong Kong with the trade name as "资生堂雅姿."

According to the plaintiff, the marks used by the defendants were similar to or identical with Shiseido's registered marks, which constituted trademark infringement. The defendants also used "资生堂" in the trade name of their company, which might lead the consumers to misunderstood the sources of the goods. Therefore, Shiseido requested the five defendants to stop the infringement, publish an apology in newspapers and compensate RMB 1.89 million.