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Crest "Ginseng Toothpaste" Is Accused Of Trademark Infringement.

2009/5/14 15:33:00 42070

Crest's "Han Cao Xi ginseng toothpaste", which was born last year, is now in a trademark lawsuit. The two words of the "red ginseng" word "ginseng" have been infringed on the trademark rights of a company. The manufacturer, Guangzhou Procter & Gamble, has been claimed 500 thousand yuan.

The daily economic news reporter learned yesterday from the Zhenjiang intermediate people's Court of Jiangsu province that the case had been opened for trial the day before yesterday. The Procter & Gamble agent said that "ginseng" is the general name of the trademark and does not constitute infringement.

Guangzhou Procter & Gamble is caught in "trademark door"

The plaintiff of the case, Guangzhou bloomen biotechnology company (hereinafter referred to as "Bo Run bio") and Jilin Huaxin Packaging Company (hereinafter referred to as Jilin Huaxin), said in the lawsuit that Jilin Hua Xin was authorized by the State Trademark Office in 2008 5, and obtained the title of the registered trademark of "ginseng" 133081st. In 2008, it signed a contract with bloomen that it had the exclusive right to use the "ginseng" trademark, and the cut-off date was 2011.

The defendant, Procter & Gamble Company of Guangzhou, has made a large number of toothpaste Crest Han grass extract ginseng since September 2008, and has been widely sold throughout the country. At the same time, the toothpaste is widely publicized and promoted through various media.

Bo Run biological and Jilin Hua Xin believes that the behavior of Procter & Gamble Company and a supermarket selling toothpaste in Zhenjiang has seriously violated their trademark exclusive rights, and demanded that the defendant stop the infringement and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses of 500 thousand yuan.

Yang Chao, the plaintiff general manager of bun Yun, told the daily economic news yesterday that the company sent a lawyer's letter to Procter & Gamble in December 2008, asking him to stop manufacturing, selling and advertising infringing goods immediately, but Procter & Gamble still sells and promotes infringing goods nationwide.

So, in February this year, the company filed a lawsuit against Guangzhou Procter & Gamble.

The old trademark is "hot potato".

"Daily economic news" reporter learned that, for the involvement of the brand name incident, Guangzhou Procter & Gamble also gave several defense points.

First, the registration procedure of the "ginseng" granted by the "Bo Ren" is not lawful, and the registered trademark of "ginseng" does not have legal rights. Second, ginseng belongs to a raw material, which is not registered properly, and is not in conformity with the provisions of the trademark law. It should be revoked. Third, the registered trademark of ginseng has not been used for 3 consecutive years and should be revoked. Finally, P & G's Ginseng toothpaste contains ginseng ingredients and the word "ginseng" is reasonable.

For the views of Procter & Gamble in Guangzhou, Tong Guojun, the plaintiff's attorney, Jiangsu's hard core law firm, refute the above four points.

In an interview with the daily economic news, Tong Guojun said that Jilin Huaxin has the legal right of "ginseng" registered trademark, and BUN Yun has the exclusive right to use the registered trademark of "ginseng". The current trademark law clearly stipulates that the registered commercial mark before the implementation of the trademark law is still valid after the implementation of the trademark law and is not subject to the registration of the existing trademark law. Because the daily chemical industry company of Jilin was accepted bankruptcy by the Changyi people's court in 2007, it is a valid reason not to use the trademark law and the Trademark Law Implementation Regulations.

Ginseng is not the main raw material of P & G toothpaste, but does not conform to the reasonable use of the law.

Daily economic news yesterday telephoned Zhang Qunxiang, a public relations department of Procter & Gamble Company. He said similar cases were not a case for Procter & Gamble. For such cases that had already entered the statutory procedures, the company would deal with it according to the normal legal procedures, and declined to comment at the moment.

"Plants, animals, and place names are all" old brand "trademarks. Now they are easy to be used as commodity ingredients. All trademarks enterprises should treat these" hot potato "with caution.

In the eyes of Chen Xiaolong, general manager of Guangzhou famous Road Marketing, such as "ginseng", "old brand" is easy to be promoted by other companies in the name of ingredients, which leads to the fact that enterprises are actually advocacy for other enterprises.

"The plaintiff is likely to lose."

Chen Xiaolong believes that this is a historical problem left by China's trademark law and a new problem encountered by the trademark law.