Shanghai Meilan Rilan ruled to change trade name due to unfair competition

Recently the Shanghai 2nd Intermediate People's Court made the first instance judgment on the case in which Tianjin Merlin Gerin Co. Ltd. and Schneider Electric (China) Investment Co. sued Shanghai Meilan Rilan Electrical Group Co. Ltd. for unfair competition. The court ruled that the defendant should change its trade name and compensate RMB 500,000 to the plaintiff.

Established in 1987, Tianjin Merlin Gerin Co. Ltd. is a joint venture engaged in manufacture of low-voltage electric apparatus. Shanghai Meilan Rilan was set up in 1999 and also engaged in the industry of low-voltage electric apparatus. According to the Tianjin Merlin Gerin, the defendant registered "梅兰日兰" (the Chinese translation of Merlin Gerin) as its trade name and registered a trade name identical with Merlin Gerin in Hong Kong. In addition, the defendant prominently used the representation "梅兰日兰" on its products and advertisements, which mislead the public to confuse the sources of the products, and registered the domain name meilanrilan.com.cn. The plaintiff requested the court to order that the defendant should stop using "梅兰日兰" as its trade name, immediately stop the infringement and make compensation.

The court held that, since the plaintiff used and registered the word mark "梅兰日兰" earlier than the defendant did, the defendant registered its trade name with subjective bad faith. The defendant also took advantage of unfair competition, by registering and using the infringing domain name, to infringe the legal rights and interests of the plaintiff. Therefore, the court ruled that the defendant should change its trade name, stop using its domain name meilanrilan.com.cn and the Internet keyword "梅兰日兰," stop the act of false advertising, and compensate RMB 500,000 to Tianjin Merlin Gerin.