Who Owns SOTHEBY'S?

British Sotheby's and Sichuan Sotheby's have been entangled in a drawn-out legal battle for many years. Sichuan Sotheby's business scope registered at Sichuan AIC has been court-ordered auction, mortgaged asset auctions and intangible asset auction since December 5, 2003.Then Sichuan Sotheby's applied for trademark registration of"苏富比"with the Trade Mark Office under the SAIC, intended to be used on the service of auction and advertising agency on January 14, 2004. On September 30, 2005, the company obtained its auction licensed from the Sichuan Bureau of Commerce.

British Sotheby's sued Sichuan Sotheby's over unfair competition at Beijing No.2 Intermediate Court in July 2007 and claimed that the company was established in London in 1744. "SOTHEBY'S", "苏富比" and "索斯比" were its official or commonly-used names. British Sotheby's and its affiliated companies had organized such events as charity auction and auction preview since 1988 and enjoyed high reputation in China. In the process of actual operation, Sichuan Sotheby's substantial use of "China Sotheby's Auction Group", "Sichuan Sotheby's Auction Co.,Ltd", "Sotheby's Company" in its promotional material, website, newspaper, advertisement and business card which constituted unfair competition.

On December 19,2007, the court held that Sichuan Sotheby's behaviors of using and highlighting the "苏富比" names without British Sotheby's authorization which might cause confusion between British Sotheby's and  Sichuan Sotheby's among the consumers constituted unfair competition. The disgruntled Sichuan Sotheby's brought the case to the Beijing Higher People's Court in August 2008. Beijing Higher People's Court confirmed that British Sotheby's trademark of "苏富比" was an unregistered well-known trademark used on the service of auction and rendered its final judgment on the unfair competition of Sichuan Sotheby's.

Although Sichuan Sotheby's lost the unfair competition case, it still wrestles with British Sotheby's on the trademark right of "苏富比". In March 2006, the British Sotheby's challenged the trademark during the publication period to TMO. In April 2010, TMO rejected the British Sotheby's challenge, and Sichuan Sotheby's registration of  "苏富比" was approved.

Then British Sotheby's lodged a reexamination of trademark opposition to TRAB in May 2010 . TRAB held that the translation of  Sotheby's in Chinese was "索思比"、"索斯比"and  British Sotheby's failed to prove  that there was an exclusive corresponding between "SOTHEBY'S"and "苏富比". Moreover, the disputed trademark "苏富比"was widely used by Sichuan Sotheby's with high reputation and developed strong links with Sichuan Sotheby's.
TRAB denied British Sothebys' claim and approved the trademark of  "苏富比" registration on December 31,2011.TMO issued the registration certificate to Sichuan Sotheby's in June 2012.

Disgruntled with the ruling by TRAB over the registration of  "苏富比" trademark, British Sotheby's then brought TRAB to the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court. British Sotheby's asserted relevant judgment made by a court had confirmed that "苏富比" trademark was an unregistered well-known trademark and they also submitted pertaining evidence to the TRAB. However, the TRAB did not examine its evidence without disclosing any reason on top of not deliberating its request for determining "苏富比" as a well-known mark. The British company argued the TRAB worked against proper protocol.     

The case is pending for further hearing.