In the retrial of a dispute between the “Liu Fu” (六福) trademark and a company trade name (case no. (2026) Zui Gao Fa Min Zai 51), China's Supreme People's Court reaffirmed a rule of unfair competition law: where a trader knows of another party's earlier-registered, well-known trademark and still registers and uses a similar sign as its enterprise trade name, the conduct can amount to unfair competition if it remains likely to cause confusion, even where the full company name is used in a formally proper way.
In this case a jewellery company registered “Jin Liu Fu Shang Mei” as its trade name, and the licensee of the registered “Liu Fu” and “Liu Fu Jewellery” marks sued for unfair competition. The case is one of the typical unfair-competition cases released by the Supreme People's Court in September 2026, and official commentary has recently revisited the rule. It should be noted that the typical case itself was released in September; the current material explains the rule of an existing case and is not a new October judgment.
The key point is that using a company name in a formally proper way does not automatically excuse unfair competition. The Supreme People's Court held that the jewellery company, as a competitor in the same trade, should have known of the earlier-registered and well-known “Liu Fu” mark, yet still registered “Jin Liu Fu Shang Mei” as its trade name, showing a clear intent to free-ride on goodwill; the second-instance court was wrong to find no unfair competition merely because the full company name was used properly, so the retrial set aside the second-instance judgment and upheld the first-instance one.
J&C recommends that businesses run searches for earlier trademarks and well-known trade names before settling on a trade name or brand, and avoid others' well-known registered marks and similar signs; where a trade name already in use is similar to another's earlier rights and likely to cause confusion, it should not be kept on the ground that the full company name is used properly, but reassessed for change or discontinuation, with search and decision records retained as evidence.
Source: www.court.gov.cn | www.court.gov.cn
