The Beijing Intellectual Property Court rejected the plaintiff Yuanqing Yan's appeal petition in a trademark invalidation case against the CNIPA and the third-party KIMSAPRINCESS INC. ("KIMSAPRINCESS").
The Disputed Mark was "KKW" with reg. no. 26910248 in Class 35 for "advertising; organizing commercial or advertising exhibitions; accounting; retail or wholesale services of pharmaceutical products; displaying goods in communication media for retail purposes; personnel management consulting; marketing on behalf of others; optimizing search engines for marketing purposes; and marketing on behalf of others; optimizing search engines for marketing; providing online marketplaces for buyers and sellers of goods and services; computer entry services."
The issue was whether the Disputed Mark's registration violated the deceptive or unfair means registration clause under Article 44(1) of the 2013 Trademark Law. The court found that "KKW" is a registered trademark under KIMSAPRINCESS, which was founded by the famous celebrity Kim Kardashian. The evidence submitted by KIMSAPRINCESS proved that "KKW" brand cosmetics, perfume and other goods have had a certain influence in the China market. Yuanqing Yan has applied for registration of more than one hundred trademarks in various classes, including more than 20 "KKW" series trademarks which were identical or similar to KIMSAPRINCESS's trademarks, such as "KKW" "KKWBEAUTY" "KKW Kai Kai Wei in Chinese" "KKW Ka Ka Wei in Chinese" "KKW Ka Ka Wa in Chinese" "KKWQIC" and "KKWYANQINA". These filings can hardly be explained as accidental or purely coincidental. Moreover, some of Yuanqing Yan's trademarks have been invalidated by the CNIPA as constituting "obtaining registration by other improper means". Yuanqing Yan's filing of the said marks had obvious subjective bad faith intent of copying and imitating other people's trademarks, and also exceeded the needs of normal production and operation, disrupted the normal administrative order of trademark registration, and damaged the market environment of fair competition, and was not legitimate, and constituted "obtaining registration by deceptive means or other improper means" under Article 44(1) of the 2013 Trademark Law.
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