Standard Foods found infringing by use of three Chinese character mark「御茶釀」

Vitalon Foods Company (“Vitalon”) sued Standard Foods Corporation (“Standard Foods”) for infringing its three-word Chinese characters mark「御茶園」by Standard Foods’ soy sauce product sold under the trademark「御茶釀」.  

As stated by Vitalon, even though Standard Foods’ trademark 「御茶釀」is used for its soy sauce product, a different product from Vitalon’s tea product sold under its 「御茶園」mark, Standard Foods’ 「御茶釀」mark is strikingly similar to Vitalon’s「御茶園」mark and such similarity would form a mistaken recognition that the soy sauce product and the tea drink product are those of the same series.  Siding with Vitalon, Taiwan IP Court held that tea drink and soy sauce are both in the category of food and beverage and thus would cause overlapping effects.  In addition, the IP Court sustained the likelihood of Standard Foods’ infringement based on the fact that Standard Foods still applied for registering other Chinese character marks including the Chinese characters 「御茶」 and「釀」even after its failure in another trademark opposition case.  In view of the foregoing, the IP Court decided on this trademark dispute in favor of Vitalon.  Subsequently, Standard Foods unsuccessfully appealed against the IP Court’s decision because the Supreme Court affirmed IP Court’s holding by ruling in favor of Vitalon and also prohibiting Standard Foods’ subsequent use of any word and device similar to Vitalon’s 「御茶園」mark and demanding Standard Foods’ removal of the product in dispute.  The judgment against Standard Foods has become final with binding effect accordingly.  (October 2016)

/CCS