Local cosmetics company to pay damages for unauthorized use of registered trademark

　Cryolite Inc. (Chinese: 勇兆國際有限公司; hereinafter “Cryolite”) has obtained authorization from Switzerland-based Cryolab S.A. (“Cryolab”) as a general agent in Taiwan for Cryolab’s beauty care and cosmetic products under the CRYOS mark since 1995 and also has successfully registered the two-Chinese characters mark “冰晶” with Taiwan IPO (hereinafter the “冰晶 mark”).  Cryolite, however, found in 2015 that First Cosmetics Manufacture Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “First Cosmetics Manufacture”) used the 冰晶 mark without due authorization and thus brought a suit against First Cosmetics Manufacture.

　Based on the fact that the 冰晶 mark has acquired high distinctiveness as a well-known trademark in the beauty and cosmetics industry of Taiwan and with its legal rights in and to the 冰晶 mark, Cryolite claimed that there is a likelihood of consumers confusion caused by First Cosmetics Manufacture’s  use of the 冰晶 mark on the Internet and paying to buy the two trademarked Chinese characters, “冰晶” as keywords at Yahoo and thus to cause its web page to be the most visited site. 

　First Cosmetics Manufacture denied the trademark infringement alleged against it by arguing that its products are clearly labeled “de” without carrying the Chinese characters “冰晶” as a mark. 

　The IP Court decided on this dispute in favor of Cryolite to sustain First Cosmetics Manufacture’s offenses of trademark infringement and taking a free ride on Cryolite’s goodwill on the ground that the冰晶 mark has its distinctiveness.  Thus, First Cosmetics Manufacture and its responsible person should pay TWD17,732,386 in damages to Cryolite.  (March 2017)
/CCS