Low-grade liquor brand-name online investment infringement

The cost is only a few yuan, but taking the form of rebranding or smashing the world famous brand, the value immediately turned several times or even hundreds of times. Guangzhou Men's Admission Service Co., Ltd. and his Guangzhou-based main rudder Trade Co., Ltd., shop online and claim to be the only branch of France's Castel Wines China, and they are looking for national franchisees on the Internet. They distribute more than 60 varieties of the Custer series. Red wine.

France Castel Brothers Co., Ltd. (Custer Company) sued Huang Zhengsheng, Guangzhou City's main rudder Trade Co., Ltd. and an e-commerce website that helped distribute advertisements to the court on the grounds of trademark infringement and demanded that the three defendants stop the infringement and destruction. Counterfeit wine, report apology and compensation for economic losses of 500,000 yuan and related expenses of 50,000 yuan.

The plaintiff refused to accept the first instance judgment and appealed again

The lawsuit began in September 2011 and went through the first instance of the court of Binjiang District of Hangzhou and the second instance of the Hangzhou Intermediate Court. It lasted nearly one and a half years.

As early as the beginning of this year, the Binjiang District Court made a first-instance judgment in this case, and the first-instance court found that Guangzhou City's main rudder Trade Co., Ltd. and Huang Zhengsheng were infringed, and compensated the plaintiff for economic losses of 200,000 yuan, and also assumed relevant litigation costs in this case. The court of first instance also believed that the e-commerce website had fulfilled its reasonable duty of reminding and did not assume tort liability.

Custer did not accept the first instance and appealed. The focus of several parties' disputes lies mainly on whether Guangzhou's main rudder commerce company and Huang Zhengsheng should bear the civil liability for stopping infringement and incurring Custer's economic losses and reasonable expenses for stopping infringement expenses; it helps to publish e-commerce websites for investment advertisements. Whether it is necessary to bear joint and several liabilities for the infringement; the first instance verdict whether the compensation amount of the main rudder commerce company in Guangzhou is reasonable.

Should E-commerce Websites Bear Infringement and Joint Liability?

After the hearing of the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, the court of first instance found that Huang Zhengsheng and its operating Guangzhou Main Rudder Trading Co., Ltd. did not inappropriately publish false Caterpillar wine merchant investment information on the e-commerce website (.com), and the company was recruited by Huang Zhengsheng. Operating alone, you must assume joint and several liability for company infringement.

As to whether e-commerce websites should bear joint liability for infringement, Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court believes that, in addition to fulfilling its obligation of reasonable reminding, the e-commerce website deleted the case-related information immediately after receiving the court subpoena, and Custer did not provide e-commerce. The station has direct involvement in the sale of counterfeits, so e-commerce websites do not have to bear the joint and several liability for infringement.

Finally, regarding the amount of compensation, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court held that after the trial, Custer failed to provide evidence to prove its loss due to infringement and the interests of Guangzhou’s main rudder commerce company due to infringement. The court of first instance considered Custer comprehensively. Enjoy the popularity of commercial ticket CASTEL in the field of wine and other fields, the time and scale of the establishment of the main rudder commerce company, the infringement, nature, and circumstances of the large number of investment and sales advertisements on the well-known investment website, and determine the main rudder in Guangzhou as appropriate. Trade Co., Ltd. compensated Custer with 200,000 yuan in economic losses and reasonable expenses of RMB 26,200 for preventing infringement expenses.

Accordingly, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court made a final judgment of "rejecting the appeal and upholding the original verdict."